Podcasts about seacom

Cochise County’s 911 dispatch center, SEACOM, is at the center of a staffing shake-up—and county supervisors are searching for answers. A last-minute vote shifted HR control from the City of Sierra Vista to the county, but with split employment arrangements and unclear oversight, the future of SEACOM’s workforce remains uncertain. In this episode, we break down what led to this situation, why officials are pressing pause on key decisions, and what it all means for emergency response in the county. Read more on the stories you heard about today: County supes want SEACOM briefing after rocky human resources changeover Buyer beware: Local woman discovers she’d been paying whole complex’s water bill for over a year Bisbee’s Aurelia Cohen flies high above the crowd Peggy Weiss Obituary Pilots raise concerns over airport debris; city points to new sweeper Support the show: https://www.myheraldreview.com/site/forms/subscription_services/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Roper Lake State Park just turned 50! In today’s episode, we’re looking back at its history—from one man’s dream to a favorite Arizona getaway. We’ll explore how Winifred Roper built the lake, how it became a state park, and the upgrades that are shaping its future. Whether you're a longtime visitor or new to the area, this is the story of a hidden gem worth celebrating. Read more about the stories you heard today: ​Roper Lake at 50: The lasting legacy of a prospector's dream​ ​Benson Hospital Mt Bike Raceday​youtube.com ​Half of SEACOM staff opted to remain Sierra Vista employees​ ​Benson ag ed teacher, FFA advisor on leave as students head to state conference​ ​Lloyd Dicks Obituary​ ​SV City Council to vote on accepting grant funds for license plate readers Support the show: https://www.myheraldreview.com/site/forms/subscription_services/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Seacom's strategy to win in the IT services arena and evolution of telecoms infrastructure is the focus of this edition of the Business Day Spotlight. Our host Mudiwa Gavaza is joined by Alpheus Mangale, Seacom's group CEO. Topic of discussion include: Seacom's shift in business strategy; the company's plan to acquire businesses; what it takes to compete in the managed IT services market; and how the group is funding its growth. Business Day Spotlight is a TimesLIVE Production. Producer is Demi Buzo.

In this Energy News Beat Podcast, the host, Stuart Turley, President and CEO of the Sandstone Group, is currently at the Permian Basin International Oil and Gas Show. In a conversation with Cyrus Brooks from RABC, they discuss Africa Energy Week's goal to combat energy poverty. Cyrus emphasizes Africa's need for energy accessibility and mentions the importance of ensuring that the benefits of Africa's resources remain within the continent. They criticize the unequal treatment of China's energy practices and stress the significance of considering Africa's needs and preferences in energy development.The conversation highlights natural gas as a crucial component of Africa's energy future due to its versatility and potential to address various energy needs. They also touch on the potential of propane and compressed natural gas for the "last mile" delivery of energy. The conversation emphasizes the importance of creating a sustainable and inclusive energy future for Africa.He discusses Africa Energy Week's goal of addressing energy poverty.Cyrus Brooks from RABC emphasizes the need for energy accessibility in Africa.They stress the importance of ensuring Africa benefits from its resources.Unequal treatment of China's energy practices is criticized.Natural gas is highlighted as a crucial component of Africa's energy future due to its versatility.The potential of propane and compressed natural gas for the "last mile" energy delivery is mentioned.The conversation emphasizes the importance of creating a sustainable and inclusive energy future for Africa.ENB Podcast with Cyrus Brooks - Africa Summit Stuart Turley [00:00:05] Hello everybody. Welcome to the Energy News Beat podcast. My name is Stu Turley president and CEO of the Sandstone Group. I used to be a game show host at one time, but I'm here at the Permian Basin International Oil and Gas Show and I'm here at the Air Compressor Solutions booth. It is just crazy. You can see the old truck back here behind me. And I'll tell you what, this podcast, probably one of the most important that we've talked about in a long time. I've got an old friend here, and I'll tell you what, Cyrus Brooks over at RABC and I mean his dad, I get to interview him tomorrow and they are a international natural gas evaluation and they've got software for long term contracts and everything else. And I've just really enjoyed being able to get in me. Cyrus. [00:00:54]Cyrus, welcome from Africa. How are things there? [2.6s]Cyrus Brooks [00:00:57] Oh, they're very definitely heating up, I guess you could say. Yeah. You know, here it is, the springtime heading into the summer. So. But yeah, it's it's really actually, it's really nice and windy in Cape Town, South Africa.Stuart Turley [00:01:14] You're in Cape Town?Cyrus Brooks [00:01:15] Yes, I'm in Cape Town, which is in the south east. It's actually still on the Atlantic, but not far from where the Indian Ocean meets the Atlantic, right near the bottom of the world.Stuart Turley [00:01:28] Is it now? How long was the flight out there, Cyrus?Cyrus Brooks [00:01:33] Oh, you know, I went from Houston to Atlanta and on to Cape Town. That was 18 hours. So with one and a half hours stopover. So it was quite something.Stuart Turley [00:01:43] Oh, my goodness. [00:01:44]Now, why are you there, Cyrus? [1.2s]Cyrus Brooks [00:01:46] Well, this week is Africa Energy Week. And, you know, their their tagline and our motto here is to make energy poverty history, which really goes right into, you know, the basic purpose of all energy companies is to supply energy. You know, no matter how much money people want to make and all of those things that people think are the real purpose, but actually we really want to supply. I mean, that's our goal, is to supply that energy that people are going to use know. And we know as long as we do that, we still have a great future supplying that energy. So what the difference is, is that if half of Africa gets one out of every two, people don't have electricity like they do electricity.Stuart Turley [00:02:38] And 1.Cyrus Brooks [00:02:39] To 2 people do not have electricity access to it. Like.Stuart Turley [00:02:45] You know, Cyrus, you and I have talked about this and this is heading up where my passion is. Everybody needs to be delivered the lowest kilowatt per hour to all citizens of the planet and allow them to eliminate poverty by low cost, sustainable energy. Now, Cyrus, you and I have also talked about using local natural resources to reduce the impact on the environment. [00:03:12]Tell me what's going on and what's the temperature there with everybody, all the leaders that are there? [4.3s]Cyrus Brooks [00:03:17] Well, it's really interesting to hear people from Europe and then hear people from Africa. And there's just a, you know, a bit of a chasm between the two in some in some aspects. And, you know, African leaders are saying very specifically that, you know, the resources of Africa should benefit Africans. I mean, Africa has natural gas. Africa has oil, a lot of oil. Africa, you know, could easily do 7 million barrels a day. Africa has you know, Africa has minerals. Africa is all it has. You know, minerals such as cobalt, which as we know is essential for EVs electric vehicles. And it has so much in the way of resources. And, you know, it's it's not just a you know, a supply store, but that's the message anyway. It's not this is not just a supply store for everybody else. You know, they have their own needs and they want, you know, if people come and they want to make use of their resources, well, they want to make sure that, you know, the way that contracts are and is that it benefits the people to develop their their resources, their economic development as well.Stuart Turley [00:04:52] You know, it seems like and from what I'm seeing from the international side of things, on the international. And that with the world, not the World Economic Forum at the World Bank, is [00:05:07]loaning money only for renewable projects. [2.9s] And we know that we're seeing a real problem with solar panels. After five years to ten years, they're having to be replaced and then they can't be recycled. And then you need a lot more money for the grid, and it's just a lot higher cost for electricity, for even wind or solar. So what are they saying about getting no money? Really? Access is money available for natural gas pipelines, for coal plants, for natural gas power plants in Africa.Cyrus Brooks [00:05:43] Yeah, that's a that's a very good question. So investment and foreign investment came up quite a bit at this conference. I'll tell you something interesting, just to my last point, if I go back to it, the president of Namibia, which is next, next to South Africa, and you know, it's the president there. He gave a speech and he said something very smart. He said that, you know, the benefits from African resources must benefit Africa. I mean, actually, that's really no different than than any local community, you know, saying that, hey, if you want to build something in my backyard, it should benefit me to me or the community, etc.. You know, whether it's a transmission or a natural gas pipeline or anything. Right. Right. So. So it's not even a big ask. But something else he said was really interesting. He said, we cannot allow and this goes to what you're saying about finance. We cannot allow climate change to be weaponized. Wow. Wow. What a line that is. That weapon.Stuart Turley [00:06:53] Cannot stop and.Cyrus Brooks [00:06:55] Allow climate.Stuart Turley [00:06:57] [00:06:57]Global climate change to be weaponized. [1.8s] Wow.Cyrus Brooks [00:07:00] I like that. So. So. Yeah. And the point is, you are right. They definitely there definitely has been a constraint on finance by, you know, the African Development Bank, the IMF or other banks, European Central Bank, like these kind of banks. They have, you know, these various commitments toward net zero and emissions and all this kind of thing. Right. So so there is that there. And you could say this, that African leaders are actually quite unhappy with this this kind of role. And I mean, there is if you consider, okay, let's take the view that CO2 is a pollutant. You know, let's just pretend for a moment if like it's like dumping paint right in the gutter. Okay. If you take that view that CO2 is a pollutant, just like dumping paint, right? You would go to that company and you would say, hey, you need to clean it up. Right. It's you do that. You have to clean it up. The evidence is right there. And I can see that paint, you know, flowing down the gutter. Go clean it up. Don't talk to me about, you know, and don't complain about my pollution if you if you're going to keep doing it. Now, that's the other thing, is that Africa has if you look at CO2 as a pollution, I mean, if you do, Africa has contributed something like 3% or 4.3%, Like it's really minuscule. It's nothing. So you have people, you know, who have basically developed their economies have been, quote unquote, polluting and they have been polluting. But if you say, oh, okay, let's say just they've been emitting CO2 for. Right. You know, for 150 years and then, you know, saying, you know, as a banker, I'm not going to lend it to you because it's going to add emission is a little bit unfair because, I mean, this is also it's like, hey, you know, you didn't you didn't have this, you know, I'm not going to lend it to you for other people. Did you? I mean, it's not like they weren't lending it to the West early on. And so I think it's pretty fair. There is they're kind of saying two things that are really interesting. You know, what is in the West, clean up their CO2 and, you know, and then that will also make room. That's one of the interesting comments. They said, you know, clean up 20% of the CO2 you put out there and that makes room for for Africa to develop. You know, that would be one thing. So, I mean, there the.Stuart Turley [00:09:45] Reports are I mean I'm sorry words me this you're that I'm sorry you know me well enough know that I'm getting excited about a couple of things you just said. So when we talk about China and the Western world, both. Developed worlds polluting so much. And if CO2 is taken as such, a pollution. What about China? China has announced that they are doing it. Over 300 coal plants are already permitted and in the pipeline for production. Unbelievable amount of gigawatts going on for coal. So why can China put all of this, Colin? [00:10:31]Why can Germany now start taking down windfarms so they can open back up a coal plant and then we're handicapping Africa and saying you have to go renewable energy, which has to have fossil fuels in order to work. Yeah. Are they talking about China? [22.3s]Cyrus Brooks [00:10:53] Question. Well, you know, it's definitely that. Yeah, actually, definitely all that was mentioned about the coal in China and and while frankly, to be honest, I don't blame China, you know, I mean, what can you say? Except they are trying. But this is a weird kind of thing. And when Alex Epstein, who who wrote the book in Our Fossil Future and the Moral Case for Fossil Fuels, Alex Epstein spoke yesterday. And oh, cool. Yeah, he said something quite interesting, which was I mean, he called this he called this very pointedly. He said, this is like environmental racism. I mean, this is really I love the idea. Yeah. Honestly, I mean, the idea that one group of people can, you know, basically make coal plant after coal plant after coal plant with practically no protest. I mean, honestly, if if if the world wanted to protest against it against China grain, they could, you know.Stuart Turley [00:12:01] They wouldn't get any money from the Belt and Road. So.Cyrus Brooks [00:12:05] Well, you know, but I mean people could stop buying things from there. They could. I mean, all sorts of things. They could they could commit sanctions, tariffs. I mean, there's all sorts of things that they could do, which they will not do, you know, because they are intertwined economic right. They are you know, they benefit from the relationship from China, though. So then why are they so willing, so unwilling to be righteous about China? Because it's it it really goes against their own interest. Right. And so therefore, it comes across that, you know, this this resistance towards fossil fuel use in Africa is actually, you know, borne out of a lot of self-interest.Stuart Turley [00:13:01] Well, I had the fortune of interviewing Alex Epstein twice on the podcast, and I really, really enjoyed his passion and not only interviewing him. Chris Wright from Liberty Oil. Liberty Frank has also been the humanitarians and quite honestly, they were my inspiration for trying to take this passion up for being a humanitarian, being energy agnostic, except let's do the lowest impact on the environment, and that means natural gas. And we know that COP 28 is coming around the corner and I'm hearing rumblings. I mean, we have M.D.s, you know, the Saudi prince going to be there. Cyrus And every there's 140 major world leaders going to be at 28. And they're now saying that oil, natural gas and nuclear are going to be the prince of the ball there in order to do that. And I'm where I'm going with this conversation is [00:14:09]how is the conversation at this energy conference in Africa with nuclear? Is nuclear coming up? And as natural gas coming up is really the bridge to prosperity? [13.2s]Cyrus Brooks [00:14:23] Yes, nice gas is coming up a lot. It's probably almost two thirds of the conference is really focused on natural gas. Nice. And, you know, there's a reason for that. The Africa has vast gas resources and potential and the world is also calling for Africa's gas for their own use. Right. So, plus, you know, gas has many more uses than just. More heating and gas fired power generation. You have fertilizer, you have fertilizer, you have you know, you can make hydrogen steam reformation. You can you know, you can do a lot of things. I mean, the basics of ethylene and plastics. I mean, there's so much you can do with that. You can make a compressed natural gas for cars as a cleaner fuel. I mean, and Africa does that, especially in Nigeria, Egypt.Stuart Turley [00:15:26] And propane and everything else.Cyrus Brooks [00:15:28] And propane. And and so LPG is part of this conference as well. And these things are scalable. You know, you can also have cleaner cooking, you know, and this kind of thing, I mean, there's a you know, it's it's as you said, I mean, there's nothing wrong inherently with, you know, solar power or wind power. But like anything, they have their own pros and cons and the peculiarity of electricity is that it's not easily storable, therefore it must be on demand. And as we saw in Texas on Friday with a full lunar eclipse, you saw the solar because the eclipse was in the middle of the day and you saw the solar dropped almost immediately to nothing. And it it just well, it dropped it as like a like a steep cliff.Stuart Turley [00:16:25] And the balancing authority on that side is the balancing authority for ERCOT. I'm sure they had to put the brakes on because they had to spin up natural gas or coal in order to be ready for that. And you just nailed it that, you know, the grid can have standby wind or standby. I just want to give a shout out to as I was coming through to my office in Abilene, the wind farm on the left side was there's just wind farm after wind farm after wind farm. And then over on the right hand side, there is one that has been abandoned. There is a wind farm right outside of Abilene, Texas, and the blades are falling off and they are having some serious problems. And not only is there serious problems with that, the farmers in Germany and farmers in the U.S. are now having to look at 25 year contracts and these wind companies are backing off their abandoned wells. And so now you may have a ranch with two or 300 wind farms sitting out there, and they cannot even use them as a ranch anymore. So that is something that we need to also, when you're talking to the African leaders, the presidents, the general and folks there, just like your company, is so good about forecasting pricing for natural gas on the global market, we need to take a look at wind farms and then absolutely go away at the end of 25 years. Who's going to haul this crap out? And I mean, this is terrible for not only Africa, for Europe, the United States, and nobody's talking about this in Texas, by the way. I love me from Texas. They are really focusing and putting money for the abandoned orphan wells, because quite honestly, the oil and gas industry did not do a great job in the past. But over the last ten, 15 years, the great oil and gas companies have done a phenomenal job in ESG in getting things environmentally sound. Where's the renewable market on this? And I really want to hear while you're at that conference, if you can bring that up and try to ask some folks, [00:18:47]are there long term contracts for solar panels? Because Cyrus solar panels are piling up. We're shipping our solar panels that are no longer usable to other countries and they're toxic waste. How is that being discussed at these kind of conferences? [17.8s] Yes, it makes sense.Cyrus Brooks [00:19:07] Yeah. I only know that Africa doesn't want that kind of stuff at all. No, but I'll tell you something they are interested in. What's that? What they are interested in Creating a value chain. Creating more. So. Okay, so here's what you do, right? Right. If you have a process which has five steps, right? And the first step is, is raw material. If you sell the raw material at the at the first step, then you lose a lot of value at. Right. You lose a lot of value add. And you know, you only have the jobs that relate to the extraction. So you might have some jobs related to oil or gas extraction or mining, you know. Right. And which is.Stuart Turley [00:19:55] Child abuse in the case?Cyrus Brooks [00:19:58] Well, all. All the cases of of that. But the main point is, is that what Africans want is Africans actually want to add industry. So let's say, you know. You know, yeah. So let's say you take your, your minerals and you smelt them and you process them. Well, now you have two industries, right?Stuart Turley [00:20:18] Oh yeah.Cyrus Brooks [00:20:20] You see what I mean? And so now you're adding jobs and you're adding now you can you that the margin, you can sell that material for increases a lot.Stuart Turley [00:20:29] Absolutely. In jobs and.Cyrus Brooks [00:20:31] So.Stuart Turley [00:20:31] And prosperity.Cyrus Brooks [00:20:32] That's right. And so you start to create jobs you create and as you create industry, you also have more money, which also means you can afford more. And eventually, you know, this. This also means there is a market there for, you know, Europeans and Asians and Americans to sell to. Right. And not just, you know, the cheapest phones they can buy, the most expensive everything, because they have, you know, the standard of living that we have.Stuart Turley [00:21:00] So this all for years and and I've been thinking about this and what's wrong if you can go through and as you look at [00:21:09]getting more energy in solving that one out of two people in poverty, energy, poverty in Africa, what's wrong with looking at charging export money? [12.0s] I think the West should charge export fees so that we're paying a higher price for the natural resources out of Africa with that fund going back to Africa to build their infrastructure. That makes sense.Cyrus Brooks [00:21:40] Yes. And I think that that, you know, that's kind of what they're talking about is right during the agreements so that that it starts to build infrastructure nice And they definitely you know it's part of the conversation. So but it does go back to investment as well, you know and there's a lot of issues in in Africa or any any place where there is, you know, it's a developing economy. So administration, you know, even making these agreements even. Even experience and knowledge at the you know, at the levels at the ministerial levels. Right. They if they end up getting advisors and this came up in the conference, if they end up getting advisors who come from Europe and the US who's who have their own agenda right then, then they're going to start to make agreements towards, maybe they'll start to make agreements towards the, the Paris Accord or some, some purpose which the West has not, which is really Africa focused. So, I mean, you know, for example, if you take California and let's just make an example, you take a California and you go to some, you know, a depressed area like East L.A. or, you know, maybe Watts or South Central, you know, down on Skid Row and all these kind of things. And you want to you're going to tell these guys, well, we're going to help your area and we need you. But whatever you do, we've got to make sure it's green. And, you know, they would just look at you like you're crazy. It's like like we have we have no money. We have lots of crime. We have you know, we have a we have, you know, very low literacy. I mean, we we have huge problems overcome. And you want us to to care whether or not we emit CO2. And so, you know, I mean, look, it's it's it's like it's not that it's we can't concern ourselves with climate change. We can't. But, you know, you know, when you when a guy is starving to death, you don't talk to him about CO2. You give him food. You know, I mean, this is this is what it's you know, so.Stuart Turley [00:23:58] It's not fair.Cyrus Brooks [00:23:59] It's not fair. And not only is it not fair, but really, you know, when you talk to somebody, you should really be asking them what they need. You know, should you should and you shouldn't be telling them what they need. You should you should be looking and listening.Stuart Turley [00:24:14] You know, I think one of the best things that came out of that thing were everything that we've talked about. Cyrus is phenomenal. And I couldn't be more happy that you're there helping your company and then helping out bring back the word. We got to spread the word on helping them out because selfishly, it will help out everybody else in the global market. And that's exactly what yes. RB does. You know, your company really does look at the global environment and the fiscal responsibility of elevating folks out. And I absolutely love the way that Alex Epstein phrased that, that it is energy, racism. By putting that out there that way that we're not allowing them freedom through fiscal restrictions. And so I'm excited about that. And tomorrow, you have hooked up with Dr. Ibram and he is the general director of AP. Oh, and I can't wait to visit with him.Cyrus Brooks [00:25:18] Yes, he's the this is the African Petroleum Producers Organization. So he's is really high level. And this guy is a firebrand talker. I mean, he's a really you know, he's a real strong advocate for Africa and for African knowledge and for the kids learning, you know, technology transfer. So and also developing African training so and training centers throughout Africa and also Pan African cooperation so all Africans can, you know, rise up and oh fantastic.Stuart Turley [00:25:57] I'll tell you, I am so excited about about this. And so, Cyrus, [00:26:02]how can everybody get a hold of you and your company? [2.1s] And we want to make sure that people can get a hold of you. What's the best way to get a hold of it?Cyrus Brooks [00:26:10] Yeah, I mean, go to grab a Seacom. So, you know, and that would be, I guess, where we where do we say we say Romeo. Bravo Alpha. Charlie.Stuart Turley [00:26:23] I think I order dot com. Yes, I think it's fabulous. And, and I want to give you a shout out. I didn't mean to cut you off, Cyrus, but you're one of the a great thought leader out there. Your whole team over there does a great job with articles, knowledge, and not only me, I a stalker of you guys in a nice way. I watch you. So I just want to think that you guys are a phenomenal resource for folks being industry thought leaders. So we got about two more minutes. [00:26:51]What is any last words or thoughts for you on this trip that you're doing in Africa? [5.3s]Cyrus Brooks [00:26:57] I would say that something really interesting has come, which is that natural gas is going to be a key to the future. You know, whether you call it a low carbon future or whatever you call it, it's a lot is going to be powered by natural gas. It is cleaner. It is going to make cities cleaner and is, you know, cooking more available electricity, more available to all the people of Earth and obviously help companies to make better energy decisions so that it actually benefits everybody in the long run.Stuart Turley [00:27:33] Isn't that great? Hey, one last question here before we close out. I was visiting with Tucker. He was over at the Propane Council for the United States, and he may be there, Tucker Perkins. And he's describing propane and compressed natural gas as the last mile. And in Africa, that would absolutely be a great way to get, as you mentioned earlier, people using it. So natural gas and then staging it out for the last mile. [00:28:08]It'd be kind of fun to hear what people's thoughts are in incorporating those kinds of contracts in there as well, because the infrastructure is a lot easier to put in for tanks and those kind of things as opposed to a pipeline. [12.2s]Cyrus Brooks [00:28:21] You can find that, you know, you scale it, you scale. They did this in Mexico, you scale it, right. You know, people have the connections in their house so that finally when the pipelines come, you can put them right in because the house, it's already there. You see, you know, it's a very good way to make a scalable micro economy, say, I mean, you'll get off on that one. But yeah, I agree with you. I'm totally with you on that.Stuart Turley [00:28:46] Sounds fantastic, Cyrus. Thank you. From Africa and I'm here in the Permian and shout out to our sponsors here with air Compressor Solutions. And hey, I look forward to visiting with you tomorrow. There's Irish.Cyrus Brooks [00:28:58] Sounds good. To see.

Cochise County Supervisors discussed the new SEACOM budget during a recent work-session.Support the show: https://www.myheraldreview.com/site/forms/subscription_services/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Throwback Thursday: Prenesh Padayachee Chief Digital Officer at SEACOM on how ICT can benefit the Africa continent's economies and jobless youth

Kayamandi, a township next to Stellenbosch, is the subject of two interesting experiments, which, if they succeed, could transform the way South Africans – and the world – connect to the Internet. The township is the site of two fibre deployments, one being led by Vumatel and the other by Isizwe. Both companies are experimenting with driving down the price of uncapped high-speed fibre to previously unheard-of levels – as low as R5/day in the case of Isizwe. In this episode of TC|Daily, Isizwe CEO Steve Briggs – a well-known figure in South Africa's ICT industry, and most recently a senior executive at Seacom – chats to TechCentral's Duncan McLeod about the company's Kayamandi deployment. Briggs unpacks the lessons Isizwe has learnt so far, what uptake has been like in the township, how the technology works and what the business case is for delivering ultra-cheap uncapped Internet into traditionally underserviced areas. He also explains the mechanics of the service and how it works, including Isizwe's relationship with PayGoZo and VulaCoin, as well as what happens next if the Kayamandi project is successful – and early indications are that it will be – and why it could even prove transformative for South Africa and other emerging markets. Don't miss the discussion! TechCentral

Kayamandi, a township next to Stellenbosch, is the subject of two interesting experiments, which, if they succeed, could transform the way South Africans – and the world – connect to the Internet. The township is the site of two fibre deployments, one being led by Vumatel and the other by Isizwe. Both companies are experimenting with driving down the price of uncapped high-speed fibre to previously unheard-of levels – as low as R5/day in the case of Isizwe. In this episode of TC|Daily, Isizwe CEO Steve Briggs – a well-known figure in South Africa's ICT industry, and most recently a senior executive at Seacom – chats to TechCentral's Duncan McLeod about the company's Kayamandi deployment. Briggs unpacks the lessons Isizwe has learnt so far, what uptake has been like in the township, how the technology works and what the business case is for delivering ultra-cheap uncapped Internet into traditionally underserviced areas. He also explains the mechanics of the service and how it works, including Isizwe's relationship with PayGoZo and VulaCoin, as well as what happens next if the Kayamandi project is successful – and early indications are that it will be – and why it could even prove transformative for South Africa and other emerging markets. Don't miss the discussion!

On this podcast, Maanda Tshifularo interviewed Steve Briggs, who is the Chief Sales Marketing Officer at SEACOM. Steve has two Master's Degrees. One is an MBA from the University of the Witwatersrand and the other a Masters in Theology from Stellenbosch University. He has also completed a senior executive program at Howard Business School. On […]

Marius De La Rey – Group Executive: Services, EOH

On this podcast Maanda Tshifularo (SuperLead CEO) interviewed Steve Briggs who is the Chief Sales and Marketing Officer at SEACOM. Steve has two masters degrees – an MBA from Wits University, and a masters in Theology from Stellenbosch University.  He has also completed a Senior Executive Program at Harvard Business School. On this interview, Steve shared lessons he […]

Eric Rieger  0:00  Hello gut check project fans and KB MD health family. I hope you're having a great day. It is now time for episode number 58. And of course we got an awesome guest. It's Dr. Sabine Hasan, who is she a world renowned research gastroenterologist, she is based in California, and she is an expert in faecal microbial transplants, FMT trusted it fast. I couldn't do it. Anyhow FMT. So essentially you're taking healthy poop from a healthy person, and using that microbiome that's inside of there to be transplanted into somebody else who may not be doing so well and could have all kinds of disease etc. Regardless, she's at the forefront of finding real solutions that can be accepted by our bodies to make us better make us well even help you lose weight. That's right. Could poop because somebody else's poop Have you lose weight, and earmuffs in case you have any young kids in the car, but she wrote a book and it's called let's talk shit, although the AI is upside down like a exclamation point. So regardless, let's get to her interview. And well first got to pay the bills though of course brought to you by artron to artron to get your daily polyphenols that are Tron teal.com or just go to love my tummy calm get your daily polyphenols. That's right. Developed by my partner, Dr. Kenneth Brown, gastroenterologist, these polyphenols are terrific for you. Whether you having digestive issues, maybe you have symptoms that are similar to those of IBS. Or you're just an athlete and you want to be your best artron to love my tummy.com use code. gut check and save I believe 20% Next, of course, unrefined bakery they've been a longtime supporter, unrefined bakery.com excellent, incredible food, regardless of your specialty diet that's unrefined bakery.com if you are keto, paleo or vegan, they've got it in that is desserts breads, etc. pie crust yeah pie crust, do you think that you are gluten free or celiac disease and you can't have pie crust, unrefined bakery.com use code gut check and save 20% off of your entire first order delivered to all of the lower 48 states and last but not least go to KB Md health.com to get your very own KB MD health CBD and Brock elite which has severe veins or ultra until you can get the signature package from Dr. cans Brown. kb Md health.com. Now it is time for oh I'm sorry, KB Md health.com. Use code GCP to save 20% off of any order. Now it's time for episode number 58. Dr. Sabine HasanKen Brown  3:03  Hey, what's up everybody? Welcome to Episode 58 of the gut check project. Ooh, today's a really, really cool one. We have Dr. Sabine Hasan, who will be our very first gastroenterologist as a guest. So I'm a gastroenterologist, but she's way smarter than I am and does all kinds of really cool stuff on read. What's that? Cool stuff? Yes. Cool stuff. Indeed. It's awesome. So I put together a quick little bio for you. I apologise that I don't have your probably standard bio. So I hope I get some of this stuff, right. This is Oh, and you'll notice there's an empty seat here where my co host, Dr. Eric riegert crna, who's usually here on time. Don't do that. It'll make it blurry. It'll make it blurry. It'll get us out of focus. He almost photo bombed us. Dr. Hayes in this is Eric reser. We've already been talking and we practically had a whole podcast before this podcast. You missed it. Sorry. Oh, that'sEric Rieger  4:05  okay. Another topic that I'd like to talk about is promptness, and being on time, that's another thing that really well, apparently I wasn't very good at today.Ken Brown  4:14  So I'm really surprised. You know, what is what's interesting, and I hope it's something that we can comment later is that Eric got a round of antibiotics. And ever since then, it's so weird. He's just always late for everything, and I'm blaming it on the microbiomeUnknown Speaker  4:26  100% I think we should test this microbiome. I'll send you a kit. That's the first thing I do.Ken Brown  4:34  Alright, so Dr. Sabine Hasan is a Board Certified gastroenterologist and avid researcher. She has a thriving practice in Ventura, California, and she started her own clinical trial company 16 years ago called Ventura clinical trials, and has been principal investigator and sub investigator in over 150 clinical trials. Now you say that number but I'm in like, For, and it was exhausting. So 150 Holy cow. Alright, so during this period, she became an expert in the microbiome with an interest in cdiff. Clostridium difficile. So through this process, she became one of the world's leaders in faecal microbial transplant. And through her research and expert, and through research and experience, she realised the unmet need to dive deeper into the microbiome. And she founded progenitor biome. So she is the founder of her own company, progenitor biome. And most recently, she published a fun, easy to read book for the lay person called let's talk shit. And I got it, and I read it and I laughed a lot. And it's really good. Written in a great lay, lay person point of view. And I loved it. So Dr. Hayes, you want to talk some shit? Talk?Unknown Speaker  5:57  Let's talk shit, for sure. Oh, at least finally a podcast that's like willing to go there? Like, oh, I don't think we should talk about it. Or we should say another word. And I'm like, Are you kidding me? I've seen half the books that are out there. The Art of not giving a f EU Oh, that's number one bestseller. But let's talk shit. We can't even say the word shit. Since when is the F word more acceptable than the shit? Come on?Ken Brown  6:28  This is true. Unfortunately, I think I use the words quite frequently, both of them often. So I really do not discriminate.Unknown Speaker  6:36  I named it that way. Because too often, you know, we sugarcoat microbiome, right? We made it pretty. But I think we're entering in a world of microbiome, we got to tell the public and the consumer what it's all about. And that's why I wanted it. First of all, I thought it was funny. I mean, this is like a tough topic, right? People come to us as gi doctors, bloated, gassy symptoms of you know, bowel changes, etc. And so we hope to, we have to explain to them and how do you explain a topic like the microbiome, without, you know, a little bit of humour to digest it a little bit better? My opinion, that's what I that's why I named it. So to give it full transparency. And then the other thing was to, essentially, you know, make people smile, because there's so many jokes you could say about it.Ken Brown  7:30  I heard you on another podcast where you're exactly right. As gastroenterologist, we have no problem talking about it. But I have the same issue with patients. They're like it was so embarrassing. I don't want to discuss this. I'm like, we have to discuss this. And then that goes from that to Okay, well, as long as you're comfortable with it. Here's some pictures.Eric Rieger  7:49  Not all the time, like no pictures, please. Okay, sometimes randomly the nurses they showed up with the bag.Unknown Speaker  7:58  Field great. I mean, you know, you probably know Neil Stallman, right? Yeah. So Neil, when I was a fellow at University of Florida, and I was presenting my research on visceral hyperalgesia, which was super clean, would come to me and say, You better start getting your hands dirty, because we're going into the ship business. I said, No, please, they call me Gucci girl in the GI lab, because if it's dirty, if the colonoscopy was not clean, I was out of there. I'm like, sorry, we do the prep, come back next week. I'm not cleaning the patient, right. And then the mere mention of having to actually play with tools and putting it in there was just something I never ever thought that would even happen to me. And, um, you know, when a patient is about to die from C diff, and you tried everything from, you know, antibodies after antibiotics to, you know, clinical trials, and that was my, my path, right? I was doing clinical trials, and Neil was doing people transplants. And we met when I was doing a clinical trial on faecal material in a capsule because every time I would do a clinical trial for pharma, if the pharmaceutical product didn't work, I would do faecal transplant, because I would say, Well, you know, the patient trusted me to heal them. And whether they got placebo or the drug didn't work, it's my obligation to make sure they're fine. So I would do people transform them. And then I discovered all these things. And of course, I you know, I blame Neil in a way for stepping into this because I've stepped in fully and every day I play with it, I can tell you the first time I I was, you know, looking at collecting stools, I think I almost passed out. But then you develop you know, that survivor or that, you know, warrior mentality that you're like, I can do this, I can do this. I went into gi I'm tough and blameless goes I can do this. And that's what happened.Ken Brown  9:59  So I'm really curious about your history. Can you just give us a little background about like your family and where you came from who you're married because I find it all really interesting. Your, your past is fantastic to where you are right nowUnknown Speaker  10:13  increasing the volume. So I'm I was born in Morocco. My parents, you know, my background is pretty much a mud like Spanish background German, you name it. It's all mixed in Italian, I was happy to see on 23andme I have some Italian blood and Greek. So I'm a mutt. And essentially, my parents immigrated to Montreal, I was raised in Montreal, went to medical school in Nova Scotia. My siblings all went to McGill and wanted the McGill route. And I went down housing because I didn't want to, you know, in my family, you had to live at home if you're going to college in Montreal, but if you go to college elsewhere, then that's the only exception to moving out of the house. So I said, Okay, I'm going to Dalhousie and Dalhousie was, was fun because it was you got into the rotations of, of medicine right off. You know, from day one, you were seeing patients. So that was kind of fun for me. And then I was gonna go back to Montreal, and I had a cold and I was interviewing for positions for internal medicine and gi for internal medicine, I don't even think I was going to be a GI at the time. And I got an interview a University of Miami Jackson Memorial Hospital, and they paid for my plane tickets, because they love Canadians back then. And they paid for my hotel. So I said, Oh, free trip to Miami. And then I show up in Miami, and I'm interviewing, I'm doing the interview. And they're telling, they're showing me like a room of 10 CAT scans, and you know, just like beautiful hot. I mean, you've been I don't know, if you've been to Miami Jackson Memorial, it's it's a city in itself. And back then, I mean, we had one CAT scan and the whole country of Canada, I mean, show up in my app, and you've got like 10 CAT scans in the room, and it's like, and then they sell you on Miami, and they're like, Oh, you could live in, you know, on the beach. And then you could go to the hospital, like, I'm there. I'm coming. So I showed up. And that was during the, the world of HIV. You know, that's when HIV was really, you know, really starting and all right, I remember here I am this, you know, kid that my parents kept like in a, you know, protected and clean environment. And then I'm the move, I'm moving to Miami, and I'm dealing with, you know, HIV, like 12 HIV patients a night and patients are like throwing blood all over the walls. And you remember the, I don't know, you're probably much younger than I am. But, you know, this was this was war, right? And so, me and Neil and my colleagues from Miami, we we trained under those circumstances of patients coming and crashing from HIV, kind of what we're seeing with COVID. Right?Ken Brown  13:04  It does have some and yes, I did have that we had our aids Ward where you would have to rotate, and then you have to make sure because their CD forecasts are so low that you you know, so you didn't want to give them any microbes that could hurt them. We just didn't know back thatUnknown Speaker  13:20  you didn't know. And we were so scared, right? We were if we got pricked by a needle, we, you know, you'd hear the residents like chopping their fingers. You know, going into a room of a patient that was altered mental status and being dressed like an astronaut going into space. And I met my husband, by the way, in Jackson Memorial first day of internship. And we became best friends because we were on call together. And it wasn't like scrubs or er, although kind of, but it was kind of fun. We were together we like work hard and do call and then we'd go party after on South Beach. So we met under this circumstances, and I think some of my best friends and you know, I've been married to my husband almost 30 years. So I think that really that environment really, you know, bonded us forever The memories, my colleagues because it was really survival. And he used to joke because he used to say, you look like an astronaut going into space. Going to see these spaces are like I'm not coming because we had TB resistant TB and HIV. We had all sorts of infections in that hospital. So it was really Warzone. And at the same time, you're treating these patients that are swallowing bags of cocaine, and in condoms, right and you have to like wash the bag evacuated. So it was really it was intense. I mean, we were I was taking care of your HIV patients criminals. I mean, it was just it was a interesting times but it forms you and makes you you know, a top doctor that you can do survive, you know, helping people no matter who they are. Right. So I think that that was it was great for me. It was a great education. It was great. And then in Miami and residency, some guys said, because we were, my husband wanted to go into cardiology, and I said, Well, maybe I'll go into cardiology. And then some guy said to me, you know, we don't take an eye and I said, how's gi his gi a good feeling looks kind of fun. I mean, it's like surgery but without doing surgeries, and he said, we don't take women in gi so don't bother well. That's all it took.Ken Brown  15:40  In there on challenge taking you ripped off your space suit room is roomful of AIDS people vomiting blood me like I'm gonna do giEric Rieger  15:52  the lion You sound like you're talking shit. Let's talk shit.Unknown Speaker  15:56  So basically, yeah, and back then gi and it was actually a miracle because back then gi was like the the flexible StG where you're like, touching your like, baby, you train with that. You were still you were probably kaleidoscope. IKen Brown  16:12  am actually a few years older than you. And so I went through everything you're saying I'm 100% dead. But I will say this, you've got way more guests than I did. I interviewed at Miami. And I went I looked at the volume and what was wrong because Miami had that they had more than a bigger HIV population, tonnes of age, lots of trauma, all that stuff. And I'm like, I like the warp. So I was training in Nebraska and I just got sick of the cold. And so I just moved south, I just drew a line from California, Arizona, across and it basically Texas is like Midwest but south. So I just but Miami I was I remember thinking, Oh my gosh, if I do residency here, you're just you're just not gonna sleep.Unknown Speaker  16:53  And actually, I was sleeping because I came out. So I was a Canadian train. So we trained with like physical exams, right? you examine the patient, you actually say, oh, gallbladder problem just by doing, you know, Toby's face and percussion, etc. So, you know, it was much faster for me to take care of patients. So me and my husband used to have like, gone, you know, he would, he would come in the column. He's like, you're sleeping, I didn't sleep. And I'm like, Oh, you know, and then we would have this competition of who would discharge the patient and treat the patient the fastest. So there'd be a board. And it'd be like Hasan and Steinberg and HIV patients and I'd be like, I'm giving them this, this, this, that and that. Okay, they're fine out of the hospital one day, and then it'd be like zero. He's in 20, Steinberg and thenKen Brown  17:42  eventually he just made everybody DNR and just flowing out.Unknown Speaker  17:48  He was it was a you know, it was it. We do things for challenges, right. I mean, we do things. Why do you go into medicine? Otherwise, if it's not the treat, that's what bothered me with this whole COVID is like, was the idea of doing nothing. I the patient's having shortness of breath, oxygen, the SATs and you do nothing? I couldn't understand that mentality because you have to try.Ken Brown  18:12  So I have a feeling that this we're just going to go all over the map here. So I'm going to get right off because there's something I was super impressed that you did, you gave a lecture on COVID and ivermectin way back. So now ivermectin, now, all these things were being said, are now coming to light and going, what the heck, why don't we? Yeah. How did you realise ivermectin fairly early.Unknown Speaker  18:36  So it was I started the protocol with the hydroxychloroquine, which went completely political. And my idea was, well, makes sense, right? That's kind of like what we do with H. pylori, multiple drug combo. So I thought, well, hydroxychloroquine azithromycin would be killing the virus and then vitamin C, D and zinc would boost the microbiome, right? So in other words, you kill but you boost right? So you we we bring the balance. And so Dr. Berg when hydroxy glow. At the same time, Dr. Brody said you know what, I think ivermectin is a better solution, because he was investigating himself. And you know, Dr. Brody is the man we all follow for his leadership on faecal transplant, but also he was the one the brain behind H. pylori and triple therapy. So he was the one that said combination therapy, and he's big on combination therapy. I mean, he's used combination therapy for two patients in Parkinson's, he published on that. So, basically, for me, it was following his direction. And he said to me, you know, what we need to do ivermectin, doxycycline zinc. And I said, Yeah, but you got to add the vitamin C and vitamin D. Nothing should be done without vitamin C, and D because you're killing the virus. And in fact, the microbiome is going to tell the story, and it's going to be amazing, because I showed the data to Dr. Ayman quickly, and you know, Dr. COVID,Ken Brown  20:02  right. The Godfather of probiotics,Unknown Speaker  20:05  yes. And and by the way, he was like fantastic data. Fantastic. And he's on my paper that's coming out. So yeah. So I got I got Dr. bozkurt from Turkey. I got Dr. Brody, of course in the paper and even quickly, so and it's basically blank, blank, blank susceptible marker for COVID-19. And we know we're going to show in the microbiome why ivermectin is working. Oh, that's cool.Ken Brown  20:39  So both Eric and I are big fans of the podcast. Brett Weinstein the Dark Horse podcast. Yes. And he had the critical care doctor from New York, pa Corey. Yeah, up here. And I was just floored because, you know, like all of us. We, we there's only so many hours in the day and we do quite a bit of research and I'm and ivermectin caught me off guard. I went, I was like I was, I was behind the curve on that one. I looked back and went. How did I miss that? How did I miss ivermectin? That's why I was so impressed that you were on it right away.Unknown Speaker  21:09  Yeah. And by the way, when you see what is doing to the microbiome, it's going to be as clear as life because what happened is because I have a CR O, and I'm able to put these protocols through pipelines through the FDA. And by the way, I did it because I had enough of pharma. You know, I had enough of putting these products and then you saw with the Alzheimer study, this Alzheimer drug goes into market, and the benefits are like, you know, what's going on there. So I said, we need to have doctors lead the path for pharma. In other words, doctors come up with these solutions, and bring them to the FDA. And so I kind of started this with COVID was more of a lead to show it Look, I'm taking combination therapy, and I'm putting them through a pipeline, I wrote the protocol and I submitted to the FDA and the FDA approved it right off the bat. Then the FDA then had second thought, because they said, Well, you need to have a placebo, and I said a placebo and COVID in the middle of a pandemic. I'm like, that's like. And I said, we're in the middle of a pandemic. Rome is burning. Are you asking me to use a bucket that doesn't have water? On the fire?Ken Brown  22:30  Okay, the house is on fire. I'm going to give you a bucket. Yeah. And you're gonna get a bucket. Now go put it out. Yeah. And then walk one of those bucket was gonna have water and one's gonna have nothing makes gasoline. More than anything, because we're talking about COVID here. I mean, it's like giving a placebo is like giving gasoline.Eric Rieger  22:48  Okay, so some burning Sinan fire truck. And over here sim school bus?Unknown Speaker  22:52  Yeah. So that's basically what happened. And then I started, when I submitted these protocols, I said, Okay, find the, the placebo is going to be a vitamin. So we did vitamin versus the other thing. But what we discovered is when we started looking at the microbiome and looking at we found COVID, in the stools, whole genome sequencing presented at an american college of gastro and then it got published, took six months to get published on gut pathogen, because they couldn't believe it. Right? They were, what is this real, we had to like submit, it was sent to the who I mean, it was just too ridiculous, you know, long term time to get that paper published. And so when we started looking at the microbiome, we discovered something in the microbiome. And we discovered something in the microbiome of those that were super sick, compared to those that were not so sick, compared to those who never got COVID to begin with. But yet we're exposed to patients with COVID. So we said, Wow, if this is a susceptible marker, so it was so basically became like a susceptibility marker, right. And so we determined that if we don't know the baseline of the microbiome in a patient, and we're giving them placebo, and that person has those microbes are super high. In other words, where's your immunity in your gut, right? And your immunity at baseline is super high, and I'm giving you a sugar pill? Well, of course, it doesn't matter because you already have like super strong microbiome to survive. COVID So is it fair to compare a placebo to a person, you know, that doesn't have a good microbiome? You know, you're comparing like an athlete running a marathon to a person on a wheelchair. Unless you know, the microbiome, you're really doing placebo controlled trials useless and COVID in mind,Ken Brown  24:47  you're bringing up something that is, I mean, could be a complete game changer in how pharma would do and type of research in the future. Yes, because what we're saying what you're saying is, if You do not have. And we've discussed this kind of stuff on the on other podcasts. If you do not have a diverse microbiome, are you able to take full advantage of these medications that we believe are helping because the FDA determined that there's a safety profile on it, therefore, it goes to the second trial. And then just like you said, in phase three and four trials, you're 6% better than placebo. So because of that, it's now a $14 billion drug that got bought by a bigger company.Unknown Speaker  25:26  Yes, absolutely. And we are entering into a world of research now, that is no longer research. In my opinion, medicine is no longer an art, it's a business. And that's scary to me, because that's not why I went into medicine. I'm sure that's not why you went into medicine. We're all individuals, we should all have an individual treatment. We have the technology now, especially with what we do with Regina biome, to understand with precision, these microbes of the individual, and the future is beautiful, because it's going to be a readjustment of microbes to attain that precision medicine. We need to get there, we can't be stopped, because roadblocks is what stops innovations and stops answers. And we got to keep asking questions and say, is this is this correct? Is this safe? Why are we doing this? Why are we not? The moment we stop asking questions, we stop science, we stop research, we stop finding answers. And then in my opinion, humanity is lost. I mean, you're talking about diversity. Look at the diversity of microbes. Over the last 100 years, we've gone from diverse microbiome to now an diverse look at 1980 the rate of autism was one in 2000. Now it's one in 20. In New Jersey, something is happening in the microbiome that we have to pay attention to and is it the herbs we're giving? Is it these vitamins that are over the counter and supposedly have the vitamins right? Or is it the probiotics? Is it the right probiotics, the wrong probiotics? So I think all that we need to fine tune a little bit more.Ken Brown  27:06  fine tune is an understatement thatUnknown Speaker  27:09  sure, like people come to you and say, Doc, I want I'm on this probiotic. And you're looking at this bottle and you're shaking your head, right. Probably. Dr. Hasan,Ken Brown  27:21  have you met Kiran Krishnan from microbiome labs? Yes, yeah. Very, very, very smart microbiologist. We had him on the podcast and we discussed this exact thing about the fact do you know if it's alive, do you know that you can get a a railcar, you know, like one of those big giant crates for like $2,000. From who knows where and then anyways, we went into the whole aspect of probiotics and how easy it is to make your own probiotic. Yes, put your label on it, but you have no idea if it's gonna do that, you know, you have no idea if there's data it's gonna survive. So absolutely on the same page. bacteria in the gut that's live is dangerous, in my opinion. Yeah. And that's in your book, your offices. It's funny, because in your book, you you had a brief segment about how people in the desert when they would get I don't know, dysentery, they would eat Kagame. And Kiran brought up that exact same thing. oil based, soil based people figured out early on that somebody got sick, they would eat the camel dung, and they would get better. Yes. And you brought it up there, which was fascinating.Unknown Speaker  28:27  To the soldiers were stuck. I forget where but they they had Calera and that's how, you know, the Bedouins told them. Just eat the apples from the camel, which is really the poop from the camel, and they cure the colour all of a sudden.Ken Brown  28:45  Isn't that crazy?Unknown Speaker  28:46  I know. We're not going to go into that because I don't think people want to eat that. But I think we can understand the microbes that are play. Right. So that was my thing is we're heading up.Ken Brown  28:58  I just saw Eric trying to order a camel off Amazon. No,Eric Rieger  29:02  no, no, I've got a coupon for camel apples. Oh, that's what it is.Unknown Speaker  29:05  I already trademarked sisters of Camelot. I was in Jordan with my sisters. And we were on camels. And of course, you know, they're pooping all over. And it came to me. I said, I need to analyse the stools. So of course, I took my eye because I did bring some kids with me. And I'm taking it. I took it home and looked at it. So I said, Okay, we're starting sisters of Camelot. But we're not going to start that because I'm my plan not to make people eat pizza becauseKen Brown  29:36  of you. You're the reason why when I'm coming back from a from a country and in customs, they're like, Did you bring any animals? Do you have any food? Do you have any camel dung on you? And I'm like, why would I have Canada? No.Unknown Speaker  29:50  It was me. It was me. Actually one time my husband brought in an apple to an island and actually we got fine. I think they got the memo. They were like Dr. Hasan's come in, there's probably some microbes in there, stay away. $200 fine.Ken Brown  30:07  Alright, so we got so many things I would love to talk about. But I do want to really hone in on progen ibiam for several different reasons. Number one, I am also trying to run a different company and you know, have all this stuff, you've got a lot of stuff going on, we got a lot of similarities and how your enthusiasm and your need to keep your curiosity forces you to start other companies to sort of meet the need that you're trying to find. So can you please tell everybody what progetto biome is?Unknown Speaker  30:36  So progenitor biome is a genetic sequencing lab, what does that mean? It basically looks at the microbes, the genetics of the microbes, so the fingerprint of your microbiome, kind of like your DNA, but the DNA of all your microbes that co exist and cohabitate in your gut. It's so when I explain this, we have a choice. When we look at the microbiome to look superficially, it's kind of like scuba diving and being at the ocean, in the top of the ocean and seeing guppies or going super deep into the ocean and seeing the life and so we go super deep with every patients. So we can look superficially and do a lot of patients with that cartridge. So when we do genetic sequencing, you have to take that stool sample, which is the size of a fingernail, and then we have to tag it and do library preps are called and then we put them on these cartridges, and then essentially the cartridge we have a we have a choice, we can use the cartridge and do multiple development and see the surface. Or we can go deep, deep and use that same cartridge into the depth. So we go into the depth of the microbiome, to look at the microbes a species because that's what we want. We want species of microbes because we as doctors understand species, you know, to the rest of the for the forever the world of microbiome has been from acuities bacteroides. Right? But that's very superficial. So if you remember microbiology you go phylum class, order family, genus, species. I don't want to be at the phylum phylum is like looking at Planet Earth, right? I don't want to be at the class. That's like looking at London. I want to be almost at the family to say Mr. And Mrs. Jones, but I really want to see the species to see the kid of Mr. And Mrs. Jones, who has autism, the species tells the story, right? Because when you see mycoplasma for the first time, which is a cellular doesn't have a cell wall, and you see 40,000 sequences or 40,000 mycoplasma shapes into the microbiome. You say this kid has mycoplasma, and that's the cause of his problem. Maybe, right? Because then the next step would be, well, what is mycoplasma succeeding, and is mycoplasma. So creating something and therefore active in that patient, or it's just a dead organism? But even if it's a dead organism, why does that kid have so much relative abundance of that? So really, it's looking at the species and understanding the species yesterday, I was excited because I had a Crohn's patients. So remember, for Crohn's, I'm always looking for mycobacterium tuberculosis, right? Because that was Dr. Brody's idea. That map is the cause of Crohn's. Right? But when, but other scientists have come in and says said, well, you're sending your your sindhya and turistica is the cause of Crohn's. And then others have said, malice sees your firfer. And so you look at all that and you go Well, which one is it is a mouse, he's your first and your semi analytic as a map. So it's important to look at the species. And when you look at the species, you start going, Wow, this patient has a lot of eco lie a lot of Shigella, a lot of demopolis. There's definitely a dysbiosis there, right, because we know that these microbes have been the culprit of problems E. coli, chronic urinary tract infections, you know, Shigella, you know, all these bugs. So when you look at the species, and you see the species, and you can kind of make a correlation, it helps in the diagnosis and helps guide you with the patient. And so, to me, that's what it was basically. So that's why I started 42 clinical trials, we're actually up to 59. Now on every diseases, because it was that look, every time a patient comes in with Crohn's, we would say, Crohn's database going there, but what we discovered from the beginning with progetto biome when we looked at everyone, and that was something that made me think, you know, what's out there like you biome is not legit, because they're comparing individuals to others, but we're all different. How can we be compared? So what we so the first thing we discovered Regina biome is we're all different, which, you know, I know, you know, by common sense, right? We all have different fingerprints. How can we have the same microbiome? and Why would my microbiome that was in Jordan, B compared to someone that lives in Greece, right? Completely different microbiome. But why am I healthy with this microbiome? And this person is not healthy with down microbiome, right? That's the million dollar question. So we started noticing, well, if we are all different, how do we compare? How do we understand the microbiome, so the only thing that you can compare is really within the family. And then the other thing that you can compare is within the individual. So whenever you have a product that you want to give it, you have a patient with Crohn's, and you attain a cure. And that was my thing that I would speak about at conferences, attain a cure, understand the microbiome, right? Because if you attain a cure on the same patient, and you see the microbiome before and after the cure, you know that something changed in the microbiome, and what was it that changed that obtain the cure. And so that's basically my bath is, is looking at families. And then from there, once you have like a group of microbes that you've identified and said, Okay, well, that makes sense. This is the bugs, these are the bugs that are related with Alzheimer's, because I've improved the patient's memory. And now these bugs have disappeared. Now, let me look at other groups and see if those bugs are in those patients with Alzheimer's, and let's come up with an essay. That's a formula. So ideally, what I want is the dictionary of all the bugs with diseases.Ken Brown  36:43  Let me back that up just a little bit. First of all, it's super fascinating. And there's a lot going on here. But as the as gastroenterologist, and I know that my colleagues get this, I get second opinions. And so they'll come in, and they'll just hand me this pile. And in evitable, II, there's some sort of stool analysis. And then somebody will circle things and then say, you need to take this supplement for this, this supplement for this this supplement. And I've always just flipped it over and said, I'm sorry, just because we can analyse it doesn't necessarily mean that we need to make recommendations on this or that we can manipulate it. You're saying, just to clarify is that progen A biome your company is doing a much deeper dive and making the association with diseases, yes, with the person that comes in so that you can at least develop a trend and start to predict how or what I need to do for it.Unknown Speaker  37:43  And the other thing we did is basically we created an assay that we felt were the 25 actually 15 most important microbes for disease. And we validated that. So what does that mean? We took microbes that were cultured, we bought them, and we put them through the pipeline. And lo and behold, see this was seeded because we had the microbe. So that's validation process, right? The second thing we did is we verified the validation process. In other words, let me repeat that to sample Am I getting the same value? And then let's reproduce it right. So let's reproduce it at month one that's reproduce it by someone else, another technician takes on the same standard operating procedure of how we develop this asset. And basically, we produces the asset. So I was very vague at the beginning. And I hired a genetic sequencer, PhD physician, who is actually behind the bracket gene. And his genius, who developed the essay for me with me. And I said to him from the beginning, I said, Listen, I want to be able to give you a stool sample, and I want you to be able to reproduce the same thing. In other words, I give you my stool sample today, tomorrow, next year, it should be the same fingerprint, the same exact colours. Because if you I'm giving you a stool sample today, and in a month, I'm giving you another sample, but it's no longer the same colours, and the same fingerprint while you're comparing apples and oranges. And that was the whole problem with all these sequencing lab because I remember and again, you'll see them and I would call them because like you I was getting patients that would bring me Sue samples, and I would say what does that mean? I mean, like bacteroides in your gut, what does that mean? And I would call I would call Neon is like nothing, it's all bogus. And I know there's a whole holistic path out there that has looked into this, but you know, they have their vision but unfortunately, you know, we need to bring the holistic and we the idea that holistic healers have achieved and bring in into gi to understand it with the microbiome In my opinion, right. Bring everything that's out there and say, Okay, well, we all see this from this guy and this from this guy. Let's put it all together to say, yes, this is accurate information. This is valid, verified and reproducible data, because everything in science, you have to reproduce it right? If I do faecal transplant on a patient that's has alopecia areata, and my patient grows hair like Dr. Colleen Kelly. Then I've just reproduced Dr. Colleen Kelly's data. And I can say, Well, I did this ABCD like Dr. Kelly, and I got ABCD the same thing and my patient blue hair, right. So reproduction of validation, verification, and reproduction of data is very important in research. But, you know, the problem is just too many we live in a world where people want to just fast, fast development of products fast sell, you know, like sell a probiotic, sell this sell that. And we've stopped the research because it takes time to do research, but it doesn't have to take time to do research.Ken Brown  41:06  Where you're gonna say something? Yeah,Eric Rieger  41:07  I had a quick question is, so you've talked about the microbiome. And obviously, you've been able to look at different diseases and then figure out where they match up. And whether the same somebody it's kind of interesting to me, though, is that locally, that makeup of that microbiome, of course, is at the local level in the colon. But they've all looked at the second level and tried to map out that it also matches not just in the makeup of the microbiome, but what those post biotic metabolites would look like. So that the systemic responses are also the same to mimic what what the makeup isUnknown Speaker  41:44  absolutely an excellent point. There's so the microbiome is different at every location in the coalmine, that what we're doing is really a beginning of seeing what it's looking like at a deep level. The next step that we're going to do, and we're going to be working with a company that developed a capsule that is guided that takes a sample of Seoul, from every different locations, where we can show with precision that the stomach microbiome looks like this, the small bowel microbiome looks like this, the seachem looks like this, the transverse colon. So that's going to be coming because that with that technology, hopefully we can deliver precision microbes to those areas to achieve cures in the future. And, you know, capsule endoscopy, I was the first one Well, one of the first doctors to start using it. And that was the first time that we saw that I saw myself a parasite floating in the small bowel. That was a revelation, right? When you look at the, the sequencing of the microbiome, and you see all these microbes, and I said that I found c diff in my gut, um, you start going, Wow, this there's a mystery there that needs to be figured out. Yeah. Because the microbiome is everything. You're you're born with a lot of good microbes, you die with very little good microbes, right? You live, and then the microbes consume your body and put you back into the earth. So from the earth to the earth. I mean, we're proving that with the microbiome. So even on a and I think for me, the biggest lesson about the microbiome is really that diversity is key to life, key to health. And I was just speaking on the microbiome at a farm polyface Farm that's really big on regenerative farming. And so they believe in diversity of farming, they believe in, you know, coconut, you can't just put like avocado trees, you got to put the avocados with the blueberry trees with the tomatoes with everything. And it's the diversity that creates the beauty of the soil and the amazing, you know, matrix of microbes underneath the ground that feeds us really.Eric Rieger  43:55  So yeah, they they try to discourage monocropping now, because it will destroy the soil. They wanted, they want to switch it up. Yeah, right.Unknown Speaker  44:04  Well, you see, Amazon jungle, they tried to do that they tried to utilise things from the Amazon jungle.Ken Brown  44:11  So one more time in your book, you're you're not discussing the examples that you have in the book. But I was just thinking you had that great section on we should be doing green burials because what we're not doing is giving our microbiomes back we have micro biomes are trillions of microbiome we should give them back to the soil so that then other you know, it'll fertilise plants. We shouldn't be embalming ourselves. We shouldn't. We should be green burying and let that happen.Unknown Speaker  44:42  We should, we should. So that's what we should be doing. I have someone at the door but I'm gonna ignore them. You can go get him. You can.Eric Rieger  44:49  I am on bring him on.Ken Brown  44:51  Let's listen, we have some reach. Maybe Dr. Brody saw this and said I'm gonna fly over there and see Right or Yeah, that would be great. Do you have one quick question about progetto biome and then IUnknown Speaker  45:12  talked to Dr. Brody like every day two to three times a day times on love the man will have toKen Brown  45:19  genius I've never personally met him obviously read tonnes of his tonnes of his work even quickly I've met a tonne of times and you know he's just so nice and so approachable and everything. Quick question for you not for Dr. Hasan but to Sabine is it Sunday now you're sitting clean, it's fine. So being the how I built this aspect. So as a as somebody that built presented by him, how did you think about organising like that stuff? That's that was really intimidating to me. How do you how do you build a business?Unknown Speaker  45:51  You know, I built it basically, I just my attitude with everything in life is I just jump in, and I just expect, you know, to find something. So I basically jumped into it. I saw, you know, it was it was during the Woolsey fire, the whole backyard burned. And I was in communications with Dr. Feingold, who was the father of bacteria in anaerobic bacteria in the gut, he actually wrote the book anaerobic infections. And I was in communications with him because earlier on, I had done a faecal transplant on a patient who had Alzheimer's and he remembered his daughter's Date of Birth six months later. So to me, that was one of those, you know, and Dr. Brody likes to call it Martians. It's one of those Martians that comes in your front door and you say, wow, there's life on Mars. And so I called Dr. Feingold. And so what am I seeing? When I change the mind? Which microbe Am I seeing when I changed the microbiome in a patient with Alzheimer, and he remembers his daughter's date of birth. And Dr. Feingold said, You're seeing this bacteria that I cultured for so many years, nobody wanted to take on the study and to support it. So I'm giving you the protocol. Get yourself a next generation sequencer machine gets yourself alive, a scientist, and he showed me the path, right? He was 97 years old. And he showed me the path he gave me the paper. And then he put I put it in my Sage because I said, Well, I'm not going to start a genetic lab that's like, you know, at least a couple million. And so what happened is he passed away during the Woolsey fire, my whole backyard burns. And the family calls me and they go, Dr. Hayes, and we want to give you like all the books of our dad, and he signed all his books. So I had like, I have about 1000 books in my I picked up I took a pickup truck, and I picked up the books. My husband thought I was crazy. It's like, our house is burning. And I said, Don't worry about the house. I don't care. This is more important that this is like a seat. This is his work. I wanted to take it on. And I felt like and I felt like it was like tag you're it right. And about a month later, I started communicating with Dr. Brody because Neil had introduced us at ACG and said, oh, by the way, Sabine also cured Crohn's disease with faecal transplant. And he said, what he took my card, and then called me in December, and I said, By the way, I got the paperwork from, I got everything. And I found a couple of patents with you and Dr. feigl. You guys were communicating together those wonderful man, wonderful scientists, brilliant mind. And I said, Well, we got to continue this. And then he said, by the way, I'm working with Dr. Adams, who's publishing a data on autistic children post faecal transplant. So I said, he said, Be ready. You're gonna have the flood. This is Dr. Brody. I'm autism, I don't even know anything about autism. No way. And then next thing, you know, I start my lab. And I told my husband, I said, we're not rebuilding the backyard. I don't care about the house. I'm building a genetic sequencing lab. So he goes Sure, honey, and my if you know, my husband, my husband's a great guys, cardiologist. You know, hi, doctor. Amazing. And he's like, yeah, sure money, do whatever you want. You want to analyse shit, go for it.Unknown Speaker  49:15  I said, Okay, I'm buying a machine. So, and it was kind of at that point in my life where, you know, my, you know, you your kids are growing up and you've done the raising and they're blooming on their own and you're, you know, at that point where you say, Okay, well, what is my life mean? I'm no longer a mom. Okay, great. I'm a GI doctor, I do research for pharma. But now farmers getting into the shed business, and we don't even understand it. So I saw this light and I just said, I think this is my path. And then lo and behold, everything was just opened up. I mean, my first case of faecal transplant was a patient with metastatic melanoma. That I submitted the protocol to the FDA, the FDA thought I was crazy for wanting to put stools in a woman's body Hold on who was dying, but her haemoglobin was seven. She wasn't eating anything. She was dying. I had to fight with them to let me do it. And I saw her starting to crave chicken nuggets after the faecal transplant, the same cravings that her grandson had. So that was an open an eye opener for me. She ended up living a lot more months than she was supposed to, to to begin where she should have died within the month. But I think the faecal transplant really helped her and I think we're seeing that with, you know, MD Anderson's work with faecal transplants, and chemo, etc. So I think that was the path. I didn't really think of money because people always ask me, Well, how do you support it? How do you venture and I said, Well, let me create a nonprofit. So I created a nonprofit. And then next thing, you know, I wrote the book was shali. And, and everything, like even Shelley came to me in my office, it was just like divine intervention.Ken Brown  50:56  Shelley? Who is Shelly, I don't know her.Unknown Speaker  50:58  So Shelly is an author, she writes, you know, she writes books. And she, her husband, was a friend of mine. And we started talking, he's a pilot. And he said, you know, and I said, I need to write this book. And he goes, one is why don't you have Shelly, I'll pay you. And she puts it in the book. And she wrote, I helped Dr. Hayes and get her shit together. Because this is what happened. I gave her all my stack of papers. I said, this is chapter one. Let's start chapter one. And then she started. So as she was building, and we were building dog book. And then Dr. Brody, of course, every time we had a chapter, we're like, what do you think is that said, it's like, I like the quotes I like, you know, because he's very much into, you know, quotes and old quotes from, you know, people in the past. So we started, you know, writing. And then at the same time, I started building these protocols. And I had a team of writers that I basically, I had my, my, my main writer that I said, you know, let's start writing these protocols. And little by little, it was built, and I and Andrea showed me from day one, a patient with Crohn's disease. And he showed me the microbiome, and I changed the microbiome, I played with it with certain products like you that I believed could change the gut. And I was able to reach a cure in this kid, and I was able to see the cure in the microbiome. So before and after. And so when I saw that, I said, I have something. And then I saw see this in 17, the first 17 patients, I saw c diff, and all of them. So I said, you know, maybe we're wrong about C. diff May, and I and I actually challenged the industry, the infectious disease doctors, because I said, maybe we all have C diff, and maybe it's what we give our gut that kills off all the microbes, the diversity, that causes c diff to start succeeding, it's toxin, right? And so, you know, infectious diseases are very pragmatic. They're like, well, if you didn't call to it, then it's not there. And I can't say, Well, how do you culture a dead bacteria? How do you take a tree that's dead and expect to plant it? It doesn't work. I mean, you almost have to culture it anaerobically, right. And so I said, well, but the next generation sequencing shows the whole genetic sequence of the microbe, right? And then when we did RNA pipeline, which is the you know, so we have a bunch of pipelines when we look at microbes, right? So we actually can do a DNA pipeline that looks at our bacteria, or we can do an RNA pipeline, which looks at the bacteria reproducing. So if you see a microbe is reproducing, and you see it high in the messenger RNA pipeline, then you know that this microbe is active.Ken Brown  53:48  That that's that's a game changer. That's awesome. Yes. Nobody showed it. Nobody. Nobody's ever said that before. Because I remember mark, you know who Mark Pimentel is and cedars? Yes, I know, Mark. So I remember Mark was describing Well, when we're doing these stool studies, where basically it's like going into a neighbourhood and looking at the trash, and then making these assumptions about what's going on inside. That that's just trash is what you're looking at. Oh, the mRNA that's huge. That's big fish.Unknown Speaker  54:18  Yes. And then the metabolomes is the next step, right? Are those microbes to creating something like the sofa Vibrio in the gut, right, then we know that sofab embryo was linked with autism from Dr. Feingold. So he thought that the sofa Vibrio or Clostridium perfringens could play a role with autism. Well, when you see the sofa Vibrio in a family in one kid that has autism, and the rest of the family doesn't have autism, and don't have it, but the kid has 40% relative abundance of the sofa of embryo you don't even need to do metabolomic studies on that because you know, that there's that The problem most likely, and then that good faecal transplant would be a solution. Oh, that's, that's so cool.Ken Brown  55:06  I talk to my patients that, especially people with certain food cravings are battling their weight and stuff. And I'm like, well, it could be that you're not really it's not really you and controlled your microbiome, would you discuss briefly your two daughters? In your experience?Unknown Speaker  55:20  Yeah. So. So I took antibiotics, my young, my old, my oldest also, and, you know, I have a hard time I used to eat like, in Miami, I used to eat the whole tuna subway, and you know, would not gain a pound naito cucumber, and I get a pile. And my little one eats 5000 10,000 calories. Sometimes she'll eat like a one o'clock in the morning, the whole pizza, and then an apple pie doesn't gain weight. She's a toothpick, right. And so we looked at the family microbiome, and actually, there was a group of microbes that is potentially the obesity marker. There's also a group of markers that are potentially the cholesterol. And so this is a new world, right that we're entering. So even with Alzheimer's, we're seeing similarities in the microbiome. So we need to understand, but more important, I think, then understanding the microbes isn't is understanding the environment of the microbes. Because you saw studies when they do so we know that when we do faecal transplants, we are achieving improvement in patients, right. But you saw the studies where they remove the faecal material and they just had the liquid then they implanted it and they still got improvement, right? So something in the substance, something in the environment, the substances, I think, make a big, big difference. It's all gonna make sense to you. When you read the paper with ivermectin.Ken Brown  56:44  I'm so excited. I just I'm literally like thrilled.Unknown Speaker  56:49  Vitamin C and vitamin D, because I'm going to be writing Linus Pauling was right.Ken Brown  56:54  That's coming. I agree. With everything you said. I have a couple quick comments. Number one, your doorbell rang. And he did tell you that emotion would show up on your front doorstep that could have been, and Oh, well. And then I got a I have a I have a quick story for you. Yes, that we were interviewing a fellow. He was from Yale. And this is gonna be about eight to 10 years ago. So before faecal microbial transplant FMT was being discussed. We're out to dinner with them. I've took them to a nice steak restaurant here in here in my city. And I was asking him about his research. And he goes, Well, what we're showing is and he's talking, and the waitress was there, and she was like, This is interesting. And she was listening. And she was a little bit obese. And he goes, Well, we're taking stool from skinny mice and giving it to fat mice. And those fat mice are losing weight. And then vice versa. Right, like, no, that's so cool. Because like the first time I'd ever heard of it, he was doing the original research on this. And then the funniest thing happened. She was once again I said she was a little overweight. She looks over at this busboy who's all about six for 120 pounds. She was Bill, you are the sexiest person in this restaurant, right? Cuz he went on to say that if you live with somebody, you end up sharing the microbiome. Yeah, and she yells to this poor guy was probably like, 17. She's like, you want to move in? You want to move in? A little premature, but I don't know. Maybe she wasn't. SoUnknown Speaker  58:25  hey, you know what I do every day as a routine. I take my little one my 17 and I rub my face to her. I'm like, I want some of that microbiome on my skin. That's the best lotion right there. I mean, I don't need to put lotion on my face.Ken Brown  58:38  Your I'm scared that I'll ruin my kid's Mojo by giving them my kids,Unknown Speaker  58:46  my little one who actually is a hyper metabolizer. That's what I call her. I asked her to donate stools from me. I said, you know, your skills could be worth a lot of money, because that could cure for obesity. And I said $1,000 for one sample Scarlet. She's like, Nope, not giving it I'm not going to grab it. She's like, I'm not going to be a rat lab. Mom, she gave me one sample. That's it. That was all.Ken Brown  59:10  That's it. And this is this is not hyperbole. In your book you discuss about how the marathon runner they took his store he gave it to mice, and the mice immediately with no extra training could run 13% moreEric Rieger  59:21  than they could before. Before we publish this episode we need we need to get shit studying calm. have it ready to go?Ken Brown  59:31  Well, I will give you credit. A lot of the things that come across you do trademark it's like you'll just like call your trademark attorney and they're just trademarking everything.Unknown Speaker  59:41  Yeah. Because so yes, it's it's kind of funny because I, you know, in medicine and you know, you come up with an idea. A businessman takes an AI takes your idea and make something out of it. And then you're like, wait a minute, that was my idea how many doctors have I seen over the course of my career that have come up with cures, and a businessman came, took that cure and made it a business and the doctor now, you know, Dr. Feingold, his book is the beginning of so many pharmaceutical companies, because that was without his book. Without that foundation, none of these pharmaceutical companies, you know, existed. And, you know, the fact that he had to struggle to get money for his research and keep putting all his money into his work. It was just not okay. And so when I started this, and I started the company, I said to myself, first of all, I'm trademarking everything. And I learned from the best Dr. Brody, because he said, patent everything, trademark everything, because they will always say, somebody will take your idea and try to make something out of it. So the man is genius on multiple level. Yeah.Ken Brown  1:00:57  And the fact that you actually are doing what people don't realise is that you're going down this microbial path, a speaker microbial path. And to get these studies done, you have to file these nd eyes, these new drug sounds like that. Yes, I end that's it. Yeah, I end in Yeah. And that's, it's super expensive. And they make it they make it difficult, or maybe they do on purpose or not, I don't know. I mean, obviously, as as an investigator, where we have to deal with that a little bit with our supplement, we kind of skirt the FDA, but we still have to walk such a careful line, you want to talk science, but if you start talking too much science, then you have to file that ind andUnknown Speaker  1:01:40  and I think, you know, it's not hard to file it's not hard to do it. I think this is where doctors need to join forces because really, um, you know, we lose when we don't work together when we were in residency and internship we were collaborating together to fix you know, what happened with COVID was really sad to me because the collaboration disappeared. All of a sudden, the media is telling you how to take care of your patients, and the politicians and the whole time it was like, wait a minute, the moment the politician can tell me what the Latina does in COVID, or Rosa Yuria or fasula, bacterium, press neiti let alone they should probably spell fasula bacterium proxy, never mind what it's doing. The moment a politician can tell me that, then I will respect what they're saying or immediate person. But the reality is we're entering a world of microbes, I think we should let the people that are in the microbiome world, lead that path and lead the treatment. At the end of the day, achieve success listen to the people that achieve success. You know, those doctors on the front line that realise different methods to to meet, forget ivermectin, let's talk about others, right. kosha seen, you know, cheap solutions be that cyanide, you know, eliquis all these I think those were hints right? When when I have a patient that's oxygen saturation 73%. And I'm freaking out because the patient doesn't want to go to the hospital, but I know he's gonna die on my shift. And I don't want him to die. I'm going to do everything in my power. So I'm going to give him everything I know. And then I'm going to call, you know, my buddies. You know, Brian Tyson say, Brian, what did you do with this? And then he would say, you know what, I've this. And then Peter McCollum. What did you do on this? And so I think this is where the collaboration of physician comes into play. Because we are the ones on the front line, taking care of patients. And at the end of the day, who do you trust with your life? The doctors that guided you this way? Right. I trusted with my life. Tom perrotti. Let me Yeah,Ken Brown  1:03:50  I just want to ask a quick question on this, because I saw that you have done presentations you have submitted for different trials. You've done this, have you? A lot of the doctors that have had the guts to do this have had backlash. Did you receive any backlash from social media, from the media from anything?Unknown Speaker  1:04:07  So I'm because I'm working with the FDA oversight. And right now we're doing actually clinical trials with the Department of Defence sponsoring it, which is another product altogether? I've not had the backlash as much, I'm sure I've had backlash when I tried to advertise to get patients. You know, definitely my there were criticisms and you know, and I always try to stay under the radar as much as possible talking about treatment. I'm more the microbiome girl and I don't think anybody really knows about the microbiome and if they want to go one on one with me and start trashing me, bring it on the ship is going to be caught starting. And I call the book and in January because let's talk shit because I said Look, I couldn't be full shade or I could know my shit. But I think I know my shiftKen Brown  1:05:02  to that is awesome.Unknown Speaker  1:05:04  So we'll see. I mean, it's a it's a path. It's a, it's a discovery path. It's, it's, it needs to be done. And I think I say to people, if you stop the innovation, you're going to be the patient coming for an innovation that's not going to be happening. You know, right now we get how many patients do get probably as much as me that wants faecal transplant for Alzheimer's, for Parkinson's, for autism, etc. You can't offer it. We're not there yet.Ken Brown  1:05:31  So let me ask you this. So you've got your lab set up to do a really good job. We were doing it heavily. A guest standing for this podcast, Dr. Stuart Ackerman, him and I did a few of these super intelligent doctor, my colleague who trained in New York, we were lucky enough to steal him and bring him over about five years ago, he jumped all in on the on the faecal transplant, and he signed up, he did everything. And then like overnight, he said, Well, this was like, in between the FDA saying it's a drug and this and then he was able to get the frozen capsules. And then it was like overnight, it became cost prohibitory because something happened with the lab. And we just quit doing it because we couldn't get it approved insurance wouldn't pay it suddenly, it was super expensive. Right?Unknown Speaker  1:06:17  So that's the peer pressure and the lobbying power, right? of lobbyists that basically, and I'm gonna say it out there because I think it needs to be told, you know, there is a lobbying movement that is basically stopping these, these drugs, these, these cheap solutions. And I think we need to stop that we need to fight as physicians for that because the moment we stop, you know, trying to do what was right for the patient, faecal transplant being one of them. I think all of us that were doing faecal transplant join forces in the microbiome meeting, the Malibu microbiome meeting that you probably saw, because of the fact that we saw that our ability to help patients were being cut. We were doing, we were helping patients we were doing using a bank that was good. And that ability was cut. I think, you know, the onus is to go from that product that was sold of open biome to go to Finch, right, which is now a pharmaceutical product, then, you know, that's fine, as long as you know, the data shows that it's working, etc. But I think you know, stopping the right to try and doctors from doing faecal transplant or scaring them, you know, I still do faecal transplant, you know, who's gonna stop me? I mean, the the FDA, you know, has said you can do faecal transplant for C diff, provided you do all these things. And even if you want to do it for autism, you have to submit an ind, well, I just have to write the ind, I have to follow the protocol and follow the guidelines. Nobody's gonna stop you if you're doing things the right way.Ken Brown  1:08:03  So you don't have to wait for them to approve the ind. JustUnknown Speaker  1:08:07  wait for them to approve the ID. But for C diff, you can do faecal transplant. You just have to f

Good morning, it's Wednesday April 28th and this is The Herald Review's podcast, the Daily Chirp. We're excited to bring you a closer look at one of our top stories, events in the community, local history, sports, and more.    Today - Most smugglers being hired by the Mexican cartel to transport undocumented migrants through Cochise County are non-residents. And they're being recruited via social media.   Before we begin, some history.   Historic Arizona 80 and its importance to Cochise County's tourism was the featured presentation on Friday at the Southeast Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce meeting.   Jon Donahue, tourism coordinator for the city of Tombstone, along with Bob Nilson, Benson Visitor Center tourism supervisor, have launched the Arizona 80 Foundation. It's a nonprofit dedicated to promoting the highway's route through Cochise County and the four towns it connects.    From Exit 303 off Interstate 10 into Benson, travelers can follow Arizona 80 south to Tombstone, Bisbee and Douglas for a 72-mile tour of four historic towns.   The original Highway 80 came through here in 1926, starting in Benson and heading south to Douglas, then back up to Rodeo, New Mexico. And Highway 80 is still alive ... Everywhere you go, every mile along the highway, there's a story to be told. And tourists like to come and hear those stories. It's like taking a step back in history.   For information about the Arizona 80 Foundation, visit the website at www.arizona80.org.   Today's history is brought to you by Benson Hospital. Benson Hospital's comprehensive rehabilitation team strives to get you back on your feet and improve your lifestyle. Offering Physical, Occupational and Speech therapy. For more information visit bensonhospital.org or call 520-586-2262.    Also, The Daily Chirp podcast is giving away 5 Amazon Echo Dots - one every month now through July. You can enter for your chance to win twice a day! Today's code is CHICK and find the other codeword in our “Daily Chirp Podcast Alert” e-newsletter. To enter the sweepstakes go to myheraldreview.com, again today's codeword is: CHICK   -   Now, our feature story.    Most human smugglers being hired by the Mexican cartel to transport undocumented migrants through Cochise County are non-residents. And they're recruited via social media. How? According to the Sheriff's office the cartels are promising big bucks.    Many of these individuals, so called "coyotes," are young people from the Phoenix or Tucson areas. Sheriff Mark Dannels told us that they're being paid hefty amounts to drive close to the border, pick up their human cargo and get out of Cochise County as fast as possible.    And now that at least three Border Patrol checkpoints that lead out of the county and toward large cities are shut down, getting out of Cochise County has never been easier. Agents that would normally at those checkpoints have instead been shifted to the border to deal with the influx of undocumented persons.   Dannels said that it's very seldom they see people from here trying to transport migrants... but they regularly see people from Phoenix doing it.   Last Friday, he arrested a 21-year-old Mesa man on State Route 92 who was driving 14 miles over the speed limit. When Dannels stopped the motorist, identified as Juan Angel Gaeta, he discovered four undocumented migrants as well.   Gaeta had been paid $1,000 per migrant, so he made $4,000 in that trip.   Two weeks before that encounter, Dannels and a deputy nabbed a Phoenix man who was spotted loading four undocumented migrants into his Dodge truck on SR 92. When he was pulled over the passengers bolted from the truck and ran behind a house.    Those undocumented people were caught that afternoon.    But as mentioned, Cochise County residents for the most part are not being recruited by the Mexican cartel to transport undocumented migrants. Dannels said that it's because this is a smaller, more rural area compared to Tucson and Phoenix.   It's also a close-knit area and people here are not tolerating what's going on.   And in a way this is helpful. Dannels noted that the one positive factor about the non-resident coyotes, is their unfamiliarity with the area.   Some of them end up getting lost, or they don't know what the speed limits are and you end up catching them on traffic stops.   But unfortunately the negatives outweigh the positives overall.   Coyotes who do get away unnoticed with their human charges can easily get onto I-10 and head west now that the Border Patrol checkpoints that lead to the freeway have been closed for months.   Many of those undocumented individuals who make it to Phoenix or Tucson are usually indebted financially to the cartel. They become what Dannels calls "modern-day slaves."   Apparently, the cartel sells them a bill of goods. They tell them they'll live the American Dream. But in reality, they end up as modern-day slaves until they pay off their debt.   To stay up to date on this story or read more, visit us at myheraldreview.com   -   Thanks for listening, before we continue, a quick message from our sponsors, Prestige Family Living.    [Insert Prestige ad]   -   Now, we'd like to highlight the Diamond Mountain retreat center, a non-profit religious organization that teaches people how to retreat from the stressful demands of everyday life.   NEW Copy --Brought to you by ApexNetwork Physical Therapy. Voted Best of Cochise County 2020, ApexNetwork provides exceptional care to the Sierra Vista and Benson communities. Choose ApexNetwork for all of your physical therapy needs. To learn more, go to ApexNetworkPT.com.   Diamond Mountain retreat center, located off-the-grid just south of Bowie, is a non-profit religious organization that aims to teach individuals how to retreat from the sometimes stressful demands of everyday life.   The retreat center also teaches meditation in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and offers yoga and expansive hiking trails.   Hanlie Van Wyk, director of the center said that their aim is to really encourage people to learn how to do a retreat as part of the Buddhist tradition.    Van Wyk, who came to America from her native South Africa and then resided in the Bowie-area after participating in a Diamond Mountain retreat, also spoke to their diverse clientele.   They work with people from all walks of life.    They even have YouTube videos where people can learn about the basics like how to meditate or how to sit at an altar.   All meditations are translated into English and taught by Tibetan monks.   So how does it work? Well, right now with COVID, people pay per night.    The core teachings are always free though.    To learn more visit our full story about the Diamond Mountain retreat center on myheraldreview.com -   Next, The search is on — for the third time —  for someone to take the reins at Southeastern Arizona Communications, the emergency dispatch communications center...  -- brought to you by our sponsors, Sulphur Springs Valley Electric Cooperative.   [New sponsor audio message]   The search is on for someone to take the reins at Southeastern Arizona Communications.   interim director Chis Hiser said that the facility's new director, its third, could be named just in time for SEACOM's third anniversary in July.   So far, nine people have expressed an interest in the job since it was posted about two months ago. Some are local, some aren't.   So what does it entail? SEACOM provides county and municipal emergency services. The center opened back in July of 2018. A year before that Cochise County supervisors and the Sierra Vista City Council approved an intergovernmental agreement outlining the governance and command structure for the independent central dispatch center.  A board that includes Sierra Vista City Manager Chuck Potucek and Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels is responsible for hiring the director. The agency's budget is about $2.5 million.    And while someone with a background in public safety is preferred, it's not actually required.   What is required is a bachelor's degree and five years of management experience.    It pays $77,096 to $115,644. But apparently the hefty salary has not been enough of an incentive to keep anyone at the helm for more than a year.   Two directors have come and gone in just over two years…   --   Before we go, we'd like to take a moment to remember the life of    Elizabeth Ann Wehrli of Pearce who passed away in Tucson on April 21st at the age of 70. She was born in Cottonwood, Minnesota to John F. Schultz and Irene Helen Schultz. Liz was a retired bookkeeper, and loved her animals that included her horses, donkeys and dogs. She was a faithful wife and supported her husband, traveling with him for his work. In November of 1981 in Leadville, Colorado she married her husband Larry who survives her. She is also survived by her daughters, her seven grandchildren, her seven great grandchildren, as well as her sisters..   Memorial Services will be 11:00 am on Saturday, May 1, 2021 at Westlawn Chapel.   Thank you for taking a moment with us today to remember and celebrate Liz's life.   --   Thanks for tuning in to the Herald Review podcast today, join us again on Thursday! And remember, the Herald Review is here for you with local news you can trust. For more information on any of the stories you heard about today, visit us at myheraldreview.com. Right now you can become a member starting at just $1.99 per week. Support the show: https://www.myheraldreview.com/site/forms/subscription_services/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mark Tinka is the Head of Engineering at SEACOM, Africa's pioneer ICT data infrastructure company. Mark speaks to Brenda about his illustrious journey shaping internet infrastructure across Africa and his love for afro-house music. We also chat about the future of work, internet governance & policy in Africa and harnessing the internet as a driver of economic development in Africa.

This conversation will focus on Investing in Disruptive Innovation, technologies that are on an exponential growth curve and are going to ultimately change the way we live in the future. Featuring Catherine Wood, Founder & CEO of ARK Invest.With over 40 years of experience identifying and investing in innovation, Cathie founded ARK to focus solely on disruptive innovation while adding new dimensions to research. Through an open approach that cuts across sectors, market capitalisations, and geographies, Cathie believes that ARK can identify large-scale investment opportunities in the public markets resulting from technological innovations centred around DNA sequencing, robotics, artificial intelligence, energy storage, and blockchain technology.Andile Ngcaba: Founding Partner & Chairman Convergence Partners.Andile is a South African businessman. He is chairman, founder and majority shareholder of investment group Convergence Partners. Andile is involved in significant new communications infrastructure projects across Africa including - Seacom (the first undersea fibre optic cable system serving Africa’s East Coast). The first private-sector satellite in Africa (Intelsat New Dawn) which was launched on 22 April 2011, a joint venture to bring high capacity, long-haul terrestrial fibre to South Africa (FibreCo) and recently a new joint venture with Google to invest in CSquared, a broadband infrastructure company headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya.Paul Pagnato, Founder & CEO of PagnatoKarp.Paul is Co-Chairman and Chief Visionary Officer at Cresset and Founder at PagnatoKarp, a top multi-family office and private wealth management firm, with over $9 billion assets under management. Paul is a Barron’s and Forbes top advisor with more than 27 years of industry leadership, ranked #1 in Virginia on Forbes Top Wealth Advisors and #2 in Virginia on Barron’s Top 1,200 Financial Advisors lists. Paul began his career as a microbiologist working collaboratively with NASA and McDonnell Douglas to search for life in outer space.

Africa is not only building new roads and airports but also getting wired up for a vast expansion of digital services. Innovations in ICT are helping fill in the gaps when it comes to things like banking and education and is the engine behind creative new businesses throughout Africa. This episode features stories from the tech campus Seme City in Benin, coders like Betelhem Dessie, and startups like poa! Internet. In the second half of the how, co-host Carol Pineau leads a roundtable discussion with: Paula Ingabire, Minister of ICT and Innovation in Rwanda, Brian Herlihy, founder of SEACOM, Omosalewa Adeyemi, Global Head of Expansion and Partnerships at Flutterwave.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Africa is not only building new roads and airports but also getting wired up for a vast expansion of digital services. Innovations in ICT are helping fill in the gaps when it comes to things like banking and education and is the engine behind creative new businesses throughout Africa. This episode features stories from the tech campus Seme City in Benin, coders like Betelhem Dessie, and startups like poa! Internet.In the second half of the how, co-host Carol Pineau leads a roundtable discussion with Paula Ingabire, Minister of ICT and Innovation in Rwanda, Brian Herlihy, founder of SEACOM, and Omosalewa Adeyemi, Global Head of Expansion and Partnerships at Flutterwave. We want to hear from you! To fill out our 2021 listener survey, go to survey.fan/foreignpolicy.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Steve Briggs – CEO, SEACOM

TechCentral — Seacom chief information officer and head of Seacom Cloud Marius Burger joins the TechCentral podcast for a discussion on cloud computing and the company's approach to market. Burger discusses how cloud computing's role has changed (or, rather, how people's perceptions of its role have changed) as a result of the Covid-19 lockdowns and work-from-home measures. He also explains Seacom's approach to cloud, and why the company is targeting the mid-market, where it sees a big opportunity. What do companies need to consider before moving their systems and processes into a cloud environment? Can it be done on a piecemeal basis and does it need a proper strategy behind it? And just how safe is it? Burger covers all of these topics in the podcast, and more.

Origins of Africa's arterial Internet veins — An audacious marine-fibre project to reticulate Africa's eastern seaboard Brian Herlihy (SEACOM | Founder, Black Rhino Group | Founder, and World Economic Forum’s (WEF’s) 192 Young Global Leaders for 2012) Imagine deciding that you're going to connect Africa to the Internet...then actually going out and doing it! Well, my friend Brian did just that and I managed to catch up with him and capture some of the history of the founding of SEACOM. He shares the fascinating origins of his endeavour, the challenges of laying a few (hair thin) strands of glass all the way down our eastern seaboard and the challenges of maintaining it all. Brian also surfaces his thoughts on the present state, and future(s), of the Internet's African topology. The impact SEACOM has had in Africa, specifically South Africa, has been tectonic; we finally connected to the real Internet backhaul, it collapsed prices, increased bandwidth capacity and performance, and totally altered the economics of our telecoms industry. The empowering business and human impact Brian's project has had on the continent is perhaps immeasurable; what a legacy, what a story and this is how it all started. SEACOM's history https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SEACOM_(African_cable_system) Brian's WEF accolades https://mybroadband.co.za/news/business/45579-seacoms-brian-herlihy-receives-top-accolade.html Follow Stafford on Twitter https://twitter.com/staffordmasie Connect with Stafford on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/stafford-masie-69489726/ When you're ready to #BeHeard, contact the podcast specialists at

TechCentral — In this promoted episode of the podcast, TechCentral is joined by Seacom chief commercial officer Steve Briggs for a discussion on the company's new fibre-to-the-home Internet service provider, WonderNet, as well as a look at how Covid-19 is forcing the world to transform digitally. Briggs explains why Seacom decided to launch a consumer FTTH provider and how WonderNet will differentiate itself in a competitive market - and where the name WonderNet came from. The conversation then turns to the impact of Covid-19, not only on the traffic flowing across Seacom's network, but also the why the pandemic is likely to accelerate companies' digital transformation efforts. What lessons are being learnt through the lockdown, and what does it mean for the future of work and business? Don't miss the discussion!

TechCentral — In this promoted episode of the podcast, TechCentral is joined by Seacom’s head of digital and customer experience, Kevin South, for a discussion on digital transformation and how companies should be approaching such projects. South talks about the conversations that companies should be having before they even embark on the digital transformation journey and the pitfalls they should avoid. Is not doing anything an option for some companies, especially in light of the sometimes-overblown promises made by IT vendors and horror stories of project failures? In the podcast, South goes through six useful steps or considerations he believes will help companies achieve a successful, largely seamless digital transformation project, including the need to “understand your own data”; put the customers’ journey first; redesigning processes; adapt or change the operating model; create a single organisational point of ownership (and who that person should be; and build a new business in parallel to the existing one. It’s a great discussion – don’t miss it!

TechCentral — In this promoted episode of the TechCentral podcast, Seacom head of engineering Mark Tinka explains why how South Africa – and the broader African continent – is falling behind the rest of the world in implementing Internet protocol version 6, or IPv6, and why this is potentially a very serious problem. Africa is the only region worldwide that has not yet run out of IPv4 addresses and this appears to have lulled communication service providers and enterprises in the region into a false sense of security. In the podcast, Tinka explains why the world is moving to IPv6, what is involved from a technical perspective and why Africa is so far behind in making the switch – and why this could prove to be a costly headache. It’s a great discussion – don’t miss it!

TechCentral — In this promoted episode of the TechCentral podcast, Seacom CEO Byron Clatterbuck returns for a discussion about the big trends affecting the telecommunications industry in South Africa and the broader continent, particularly from a data perspective. Clatterbuck talks about the ever-expanding demand for data from both consumers and businesses and why Seacom sees secondary cities as important next stage of its growth ambitions. The conversation turns to edge computing and the growing view that, especially as 5G begins to take off, a lot of computational work isn’t, in fact, going to happen in large global data centres but at the edge, close to where it’s most needed for rapid, low-latency applications. There’s a suggestion that this could put the advantage back in telecommunications operator’s courts, and away from the global cloud giants -- Clatterbuck talks about what this might mean for the industry, particularly as carriers and cloud providers begin working more closely together in future. This is going to require more redundancy, more networks -- and certainly more fibre networks to connect everything together, he says. Finally, the discussion turns to new subsea cables that are planned for construction around Africa, including Google's Equiano cable on the west coast. What's the business case for these new systems, and how will Seacom participate in them? It's a great discussion -- don't miss it!

TechCentral — In this promoted episode of the podcast, TechCentral is joined by Seacom chief commercial officer Steve Briggs for a discussion on the company's big brand overhaul. Coinciding with Seacom's 10th anniversary, the refresh was done to showcase the company's evolution from solely a provider of subsea bandwidth in its early years into becoming a major data connectivity service provider in Africa. Credited with bringing high-quality and affordable Internet bandwidth to the continent through its launch of Africa’s first private high-speed subsea cable system along the eastern and southern coastlines in 2009, the company today provides a full suite of solutions for service providers directly to businesses. It has also recently made several acquisitions that have strengthened its service offerings, its geographic network reach and broadened its market position. In the podcast, Briggs explains how the new look reflects its changed positioning in the ICT market as well as what was involved in executing a brand refresh of this magnitude, which included a complete redesign of its website.

TechCentral — In the latest in a series of promoted podcasts with Seacom, TechCentral’s Duncan McLeod talks to Seacom chief development officer Suveer Ramdhani about the changes sweeping the telecommunications industry. Ramdhani talks about the consolidation that has started to take shape in the South African telecoms sector - some of it driven by Seacom - as well as what's driving this change and what's likely to happen next. The conversation turns to the role of regulators such as the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa and the Competition Commission and whether the way they regulate the sector is optimal or could be tweaked to support industry growth. As bandwidth increasingly becomes a commodity, with prices falling relentlessly - driven by new players that are upending the traditional telecoms model - how is the industry going to transform, and what does it mean for the big incumbent operators - and the challengers, for that matter? Ramdhani shares his views on who will win, and who won't, as these disruptive changes begin to manifest themselves. New technologies, including the Internet of things, software-defined networking and network function virtualisation, artificial intelligence, and 5G, also present big opportunities - and big risks. Ramdhani talks about how these technologies will, in time, transform the sector. It's a great discussion. Don't miss it!

TechCentral — In the third of a series of promoted podcasts with Seacom, TechCentral’s Duncan McLeod talks to Seacom Business South Africa GM Grant Parker about the “smoke and mirrors” of the country’s Internet market. Parker kicks off the discussion with a look back at the development of the Internet industry in South Africa over the past 10 years, and the impact that Seacom has had in bringing meaningful competition to the sector. It’s clear that the South African Internet market has come of age, and consumers -- especially business customers -- are benefiting from plummeting prices, increased speeds and a vast array of package choices. But, as Parker explains in the podcast, not all offerings are created equal, and businesses need to do their research to ensure that what they’re getting what they pay for. “This golden age of the Internet access has a dark underbelly, with many too-good-to-be-true promises proving to be just that,” Parker wrote in a recent column. “There are a lot of smoke and mirrors in the sector, with providers easily winning customers via impressive offers, and then disappointing when the actual experience falls short.” He explained that in a cluttered and competitive sector, deciding on a broadband contract and Internet service provider can be “incredibly confusing”. “When rival products look the same, it’s not uncommon for providers to promise the earth in terms of ‘speeds and feeds’ to win a sale -- only to hide behind the service-level description when the customer is dissatisfied. Service-level agreements, which may include penalties for early agreement terminations, also help more nefarious providers get away with providing an inferior service.” Broken promises typically hinge on “breakage” models widely

TechCentral — In the second of a series of promoted podcasts with Seacom, TechCentral's Duncan McLeod talks to chief commercial officer Steve Briggs about how technology is reshaping society. The conversation touches the digital divide - especially in the South African context - and what can be done to address it. This divide is not only about access to the Internet, but also to work opportunities and growth in an environment where technology skills are increasingly prized by business. Automation and digital processes are transforming businesses, and Briggs believes this could ultimately have a very real social impact. Are we rushing blindly into this future without giving sufficient thought to the potential consequences? Briggs talks about how the concept of work is changing, how new skills will be needed as business transforms for the digital era and the impact this will have on employment and employability. The conversation touches on the concept of a universal basic income grant and whether it has to a role to play in avoiding social unrest and other problems that might emerge as the world moves to the so-called fourth Industrial Revolution. Briggs talks about the impact of social media, why it's not necessarily a force for good, the impact on democracy and the role of government regulation. He explains why he believes it's ultimately up to ordinary citizens to escape the echo chambers that social media platforms tend to reinforce.

TechCentral — In the first of a series of promoted podcasts with Seacom, TechCentral's Duncan McLeod talks to CEO Byron Clatterbuck about the origin of the business, how he became involved, the launch of Seacom Business and where the company is going. Clatterbuck talks about the launch nine years ago of the Seacom submarine cable system that connects countries along Africa's east coast with India and Europe, how the cable project came about and what was involved in building it. He then turns his attention to how Seacom has grown since then, the decision to launch Seacom Business, providing connectivity to enterprises in South Africa and later Kenya, and the company's acquisition strategy. Clatterbuck explains the rationale behind the acquisition of national fibre operator FibreCo - currently awaiting regulatory approval by the competition authorities - and how he sees the telecommunications landscape evolving in South Africa and the broader region in the years ahead, and the role he sees Seacom playing as the industry continues to develop. Don't miss it!

TechCentral — In this episode of the podcast, Duncan McLeod interviews Seacom chief development officer Suveer Ramdhani about the past, present and future of the telecommunications provider. Ramdhani talks about the origins of the Seacom project - to build a subsea cable system along Africa's east coast connecting the continent to Europe and India - and how the business has changed since then. In the podcast, he talks about how submarine cable systems work, why Seacom's business model shook up the telecoms industry in South Africa and the broader continent, and why it expanded into providing more than just subsea capacity. He explains the decision to launch Seacom Business, the company's acquisition strategy - it will be announcing two new deals in the coming weeks - and where he thinks the industry is going. It's a fascinating discussion. Be sure not to miss it!

The soul-destroying Twitter outages and more recent SEACOM broadband disruptions notwithstanding, the team at the AfricanTechRoundup.com has been extremely busy since we properly got 2016 on the go a few weeks ago. So busy in fact, that Tefo Mohapi was unable to join Andile Masuku on the show this week. (Heads up. This week’s episode will be uncharacteristically short, but informative, nonetheless.) Music Credits: Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Music licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

On South Africa's best weekly technology podcast: Microsoft's big devices keynote; Apple Watch and iPhone 6s and 6s Plus South African pricing and availability; Afrihost cutting across to its new network; and Seacom going direct to corporate South Africa. Plus our tech picks and our winners and losers of the week. Podcast website

TechCentral — On South Africa's best weekly technology podcast: Microsoft’s big devices keynote; Apple Watch and iPhone 6s and 6s Plus South African pricing and availability; Afrihost cutting across to its new network; and Seacom going direct to corporate South Africa. Plus our tech picks and our winners and losers of the week.

After being at the helm of Africa’s largest Technology, Media, and Telecommunications (TMT) sector focused fund manager for nearly a decade, Brandon Doyle seems to have thoroughly shed any visible traces of his punk rock past. Since co-founding Convergence Partners in 2006, Brandon and his team (many of whom are Charted Accountant types) have built an impressive track record of developing new investment opportunities and adding value to existing investments across the entire life cycle of ICT assets in Africa. In the latest instalment of African Tech Conversations, the Convergence Partners CEO shares some highlights from his stellar career in finance— which features lengthy stints at firms like Nedbank and Anglo American. He also hints at elements of the “secret sauce” that’s allowed his company to lay claim to the title of “impact investor”, and be widely considered a leading player within Africa’s ICT infrastructure venture capital scene. Brandon also gives us an update on how well Convergence Partners’ legacy business portfolio is doing— which includes hugely successful investments like SEACOM and Dimension Data, and talks about how he’s planning to invest the $200 million Convergence Partners has managed to woo into its recently-closed Communication Infrastructure Fund. Music Credits: All music by Brian Lupiya. Used with permission.

Many people are conflicted about the need for “cyber mercenaries” like Hacking Team to exist. Blind idealism might contend that it is simply not right for corporatised hacking syndicates with dodgy ethical standards to secretly assist government intelligence agencies (and well-heeled private clients) to snoop on targets. However, living in a world where the modern wonders of the internet and mobile devices are harnessed to conduct criminal activities in increasingly devious ways may demand that we hold a far more pragmatic attitude towards the need for “hackers for hire” firms to stay in business. This week, iAfrikan Startups Editor and Content Producer for the African Tech Round-up, Peter Peele joins me to discuss how Kenya and Ethiopia have been implicated in Hacking Team’s recent embarrassing hacking incident, and explain how the alleged incompetence of those countries’ intelligence officials-- as evidenced in leaked documents archived on WikiLeaks, could mean that companies like Hacking Team will not be short of clients any time soon. As always, be sure to catch up on all the weeks biggest digital, tech and innovation news from across the African continent: -- Get an update on the headcount at PRASA in the wake of the company's multi-million dollar locomotive procurement scandal, -- Find out which three big international players have announced major plays for Africa's growing money remittance and online payments market, -- Discover which recent infrastructural development at SEACOM has led to their claim of being Africa's leading "telecom enabler and network provider", and what has given rise to Liquid Telecoms promising its clients "near 100 percent server uptime at much faster speeds than any other ISP in Africa", -- Learn more about the Nigerian government's new SIM card registration rules-- aimed at curbing fraud, and -- Get the low-low on which African countries Vodafone services never ask them to intercept communications either for for law enforcement or national security purposes? Music Credits: All Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Music licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/