Podcasts about secondarily

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Supervolcanoes tail risk has been exaggerated?, published by Vasco Grilo on March 6, 2024 on The Effective Altruism Forum. This is a linkpost for the peer-reviewed article "Severe Global Cooling After Volcanic Super-Eruptions? The Answer Hinges on Unknown Aerosol Size" ( McGraw 2024). Below are its abstract, my notes, my estimation of a nearterm annual extinction risk from supervolcanoes of 3.38*10^-14, and a brief discussion of it. At the end, I have a table comparing my extinction risk estimates with Toby Ord's existential risk guesses given in The Precipice. Abstract Here is the abstract from McGraw 2024 (emphasis mine): Volcanic super-eruptions have been theorized to cause severe global cooling, with the 74 kya Toba eruption purported to have driven humanity to near-extinction. However, this eruption left little physical evidence of its severity and models diverge greatly on the magnitude of post-eruption cooling. A key factor controlling the super-eruption climate response is the size of volcanic sulfate aerosol, a quantity that left no physical record and is poorly constrained by models. Here we show that this knowledge gap severely limits confidence in model-based estimates of super-volcanic cooling, and accounts for much of the disagreement among prior studies. By simulating super-eruptions over a range of aerosol sizes, we obtain global mean responses varying from extreme cooling all the way to the previously unexplored scenario of widespread warming. We also use an interactive aerosol model to evaluate the scaling between injected sulfur mass and aerosol size. Combining our model results with the available paleoclimate constraints applicable to large eruptions, we estimate that global volcanic cooling is unlikely to exceed 1.5°C no matter how massive the stratospheric injection. Super-eruptions, we conclude, may be incapable of altering global temperatures substantially more than the largest Common Era eruptions. This lack of exceptional cooling could explain why no single super-eruption event has resulted in firm evidence of widespread catastrophe for humans or ecosystems. My notes I have no expertise in volcanology, but I found McGraw 2024 to be quite rigorous. In particular, they are able to use their model to replicate the more pessimistic results of past studies tweeking just 2 input parameters (highlighted by me below): "We next evaluate if the assessed aerosol size spread is the likely cause of disagreement among past studies with interactive aerosol models. For this task, we interpolated the peak surface temperature responses from our ModelE simulations to the injected mass and peak global mean aerosol size from several recent interactive aerosol model simulations of large eruptions (Fig. 7, left panel). Accounting for these two values alone (left panel), our model experiments are able to reproduce remarkably similar peak temperature responses as the original studies found". By "reproduce remarkably well", they are referring to a coefficient of determination (R^2) of 0.87 (see Fig. 7). "By comparison, if only the injected masses of the prior studies are used, the peak surface temperature responses cannot be reproduced". By this, they are referring to an R^2 ranging from -1.82 to -0.04[1] (see Fig. 7). They agree with past studies on the injected mass, but not on the aerosol size[2]. Fig. 3a (see below) illustrates the importance of the peak mean aerosol size. The greater the size, the weaker the cooling. I think this is explained as follows: Primarily, smaller particles reflect more sunlight per mass due to having greater cross-sectional area per mass[3]. Secondarily, larger particles have less time to reflect sunlight due to falling down faster[4]. According to Fig. 2 (see below), aerosol size increases with injected mass, which makes intuitive sen...

     The Bible reveals God is holy.[1] God declares of Himself, “I am holy” (Lev 11:44), and the psalmist says, “holy is the LORD our God” (Psa 99:9), and the Seraphim declare, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts” (Isa 6:3). In these verses, the word “holy” translates the Hebrew word qadōsh (קָדוֹשׁ), which means “to be holy, [or] separated.”[2] James Swanson says it refers “to being unique and pure in the sense of superior moral qualities and possessing certain essential divine qualities in contrast with what is human.”[3] God's holiness is closely linked with His righteousness, justice, and perfection. Holiness denotes moral purity.      Because God is absolutely holy (Psa 99:9; Isa 6:3; Rev 15:4), it is written, “no evil dwells with You” (Psa 5:4). By definition, evil is “any act or event that is contrary to the good and holy purposes of God…Moral evil refers to acts (sins) of creatures that are contrary to God's holy character and law.”[4] According to Merrill F. Unger, moral evil “is the failure of rational and free beings to conform in character and conduct to the will of God.”[5]George Howley states, “God is separate from all evil and is in no way responsible for it…[and] It can only be attributed to the abuse of free-will on the part of created beings, angelic and human.”[6] Evil originates in the heart (Gen 6:5; Zech 8:17), can result in evil actions (Neh 13:17; Prov 24:8; 1 Pet 3:12), lead to proneness of evil (Ex 32:22; Deut 9:24), and mark an entire generation of people (Deut 1:35; Matt 12:45).      Being holy means God cannot be affixed to anything morally imperfect. This means the Lord cannot condone sin in any way. Scripture reveals, “Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, and You cannot look on wickedness with favor” (Hab 1:13), and “God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). Everett Harrison states: "The basic idea conveyed by the holiness of God is His separateness, i.e., His uniqueness, His distinction as the Wholly Other, the One who cannot be confused with the gods devised by men (Ex 15:11), the One who stands apart from and above the creation. Secondarily the holiness of God denotes His moral perfection, His absolute freedom from blemish of any kind (Psa 89:35)."[7]      The third Person of the Trinity bears the specific title of the Holy Spirit (John 14:26), which emphasizes His righteousness and separateness from sin (Isa 63:10; Eph 4:30). Jesus, as the Son of God, embodies the holiness of God in human form. Scripture tells us that Jesus was “holy, innocent, pure, and set apart from sinners” (Heb 7:26). Jesus lived and interacted with sinners (i.e., eating with them, attending weddings, etc.), but He never had sinful thoughts, spoke sinful words, or acted in sinful ways. No matter what was happening around Him, Jesus never crossed the line into sin. Without abandoning righteousness, He loved and spoke truth, displayed compassion, helped the weak, and rebuked the arrogant. He was always holy in thought, word, and deed, and though near to others, He was still “set apart from sinners” (Heb 7:26).      In one sense, a person or group is holy—set apart to God—simply by being part of the covenant community. It was said of Israel, “all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is in their midst” (Num 16:3). According to Allen Ross, “They were holy, because the Lord who set them apart was holy.”[8] Merrill F. Unger notes, “God has dedicated Israel as His people. They are ‘holy' by their relationship to the ‘holy' God. All of the people are in a sense ‘holy,' as members of the covenant community, irrespective of their faith and obedience.”[9] Being set apart to God, the Lord expected His people to be set apart from the world and behave in conformity with His righteous character and directives. Unger states, “Based on the intimate nature of the relationship, God expected His people to live up to His ‘holy' expectations and, thus, to demonstrate that they were a ‘holy nation.'”[10] The Lord told His people, “you are to be holy to Me, for I the LORD am holy; and I have set you apart from the peoples to be Mine” (Lev 20:26). According to Allen Ross, “The means of developing holiness required faith and obedience on their part. But because it was a nation of very human and often stubborn individuals, progression toward holiness did not develop instantly or easily, and for some it did not develop at all.”[11]      This is also true of Christians who are called “saints”, not because we act saintly, but because of our relation to God as part of the church, the body of Christ. Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, “to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling” (1 Cor 1:2). The word “saints” here translates the Greek hagios (ἅγιος), which pertains “to being dedicated or consecrated to the service of God.”[12] In this passage, hagios is a synonym for a believer in Christ, not a description of their character. All Christians are saints (Rom 1:7; 1 Cor 1:1-2; 2 Cor 1:1; Eph 1:1; Phil 1:1; Col 1:2). The Christians at Corinth were saints (positionally), even when they were behaving like mere men (1 Cor 3:1-3). Warren Wiersbe states: "The church is made up of saints, that is, people who have been “sanctified” or “set apart” by God. A saint is not a dead person who has been honored by men because of his or her holy life. No, Paul wrote to living saints, people who, through faith in Jesus Christ, had been set apart for God's special enjoyment and use. In other words, every true believer is a saint because every true believer has been set apart by God and for God."[13]      Christians living in the dispensation of the church age are called to holy living. Peter wrote, “like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, ‘you shall be holy, for I am holy'” (1 Pet 1:15-16). God, who is our Father, is holy, and He calls for His children to live holy lives. For Christians, living holy to the Lord is accomplished by advancing to spiritual maturity and living as obedient-to-the-Word believers (Heb 6:1). It means learning God's Word (Psa 1:2-3; Ezra 7:10; 2 Tim 2:15; 3:16-17; 1 Pet 2:2), living in submission to Him (Rom 12:1-2; Jam 4:7), walking by faith (2 Cor 5:7; Heb 10:38; 11:6), being filled with the Spirit (Eph 5:18), walking by means of the Spirit (Gal 5:16), accepting trials that help us grow (Jam 1:2-4), being devoted to prayer (Col 4:2; 1 Th 5:17; Eph 6:18), worship (Heb 13:15), being thankful (1 Th 5:18), fellowshipping with other believers (Heb 10:24-25), serving others (Gal 5:13; 6:10; 1 Pet 4:10; Phil 2:3-4), and taking advantage of the time we have (Eph 5:15-16). On the negative side, it means not loving the world (Jam 4:4; 1 John 2:15-16), nor quenching the Spirit (1 Th 5:19), nor grieving the Spirit (Eph 4:30). If we turn to sin—and that's always a possibility—it means we are not living holy lives as God expects. When Christians sin, it does not result in loss of salvation, but loss of fellowship with God. It also means that if we continue to live sinfully, that God may discipline us (Heb 12:5-11), and deny us eternal rewards (1 Cor 3:10-15; 2 John 1:8). Humble believers acknowledge their sin, and God restores them to fellowship when they confess it to Him, seeking His forgiveness (1 John 1:9). Dr. Steven R. Cook   [1] The apostle Paul referred to the Bible as “the holy Scriptures” (Rom 1:2), and “the sacred writings” (2 Tim 3:15). The terms “holy” and “sacred” mean the Bible is a special book in that it conveys divine revelation from God to mankind (2 Tim 3:16-17). Though written by human authors under the inspiration of God the Holy Spirit (2 Pet 1:20-21), the end product is “the word of God, which performs its work in you who believe” (1 Th 2:13). [2] Willem VanGemeren, ed., New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology & Exegesis (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1997), 868. [3] James Swanson, “קָדוֹשׁ”, Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament) (Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997). [4] Stanley Grenz, David Guretzki, and Cherith Fee Nordling, Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999), 48. [5] Merrill Frederick Unger, R. K. Harrison, Howard Frederic Vos, et al., The New Unger's Bible Dictionary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1988). [6] George Howley, “Evil,” ed. D. R. W. Wood et al., New Bible Dictionary (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996), 349. [7] Everett. F. Harrison, “Holiness; Holy,” ed. Geoffrey W Bromiley, The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Revised (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1979–1988), 725. [8] Allen P. Ross, Holiness to the Lord: A Guide to the Exposition of the Book of Leviticus (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2002), 378. [9] W. E. Vine, Merrill F. Unger, and William White Jr., Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words (Nashville, TN: T. Nelson, 1996), 113. [10] Ibid., 113. [11] Allen P. Ross, Holiness to the Lord: A Guide to the Exposition of the Book of Leviticus, 48. [12] William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 10. [13] Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 1, 568.

Season 9: My special guest is Alexandros Angelis who's here to discuss his book that explores mysteries from our ancient past. Get it now on Amazon.About the book:Imagine the following scene: Eric Schliemann having to get the permission of scientists, telling them that, based on Homer's descriptions, he believes he can discover the mythical Troy. Besides laughing their hearts out, do you think there would even be the slightest chance for Schliemann to have gotten their permission? And it is not just Troy, Knossos, or the Mycenae, the most major archaeological findings in the world, despite the references in the ancient texts, that was a complete surprise for the scientific establishment. If that establishment had full control, all those discoveries would never have happened. The primary purpose of this book is to present evidence supporting the theory of a relatively advanced civilization during prehistory, which was lost due to some natural catastrophe. This is mainly attempted by giving knowledge of the ancient people, which they are not justified to have had, and similarities between distant cultures that should not have existed. How advanced was that civilization? It is somewhat more advanced than Europe during the 18th century AC. Secondarily, but no less important, there are the following goals: to reveal our civilization's vast danger from cosmic impacts and help realize how much more frequent natural catastrophes are than we think. Shoot down the theories regarding Indo-Europeans & foreign invaders in Greece, proving that the Greeks have preserved knowledge from events in this area many thousand years before their time. Shows that mythology hides big doses of historical truth within itself as it describes actual events, although often distorted by the human imagination. This truth may be of great help to the work of science in the investigation of the unknown aspects of our past.•To trouble the reader on how much we differ from men of past eras, even from other human species, contrary to the common belief that we are vastly "superior".•To arouse the reader's interest in the ancient mysteries which spread like a fog over the history of the human civilization. Science, after all, accepts that large-scale catastrophes often occur while man walks the earth, so is it doubtful that human society has had a setback at least once in the past?On the contrary, it is probably the usual thing. On a smaller scale than the one proposed here, there have been many setbacks in human civilization, like the domination of the Romans (when the Hellenistic Age collapsed), the collapse of the Romans themselves later on, the rise of Islam, and more. The funny part is that science accepts the Indo-European theory, meaning that an Indo-European race started traveling around the world during prehistoric times, spreading civilizations but leaving no trace behind before mysteriously disappearing. But how far is the Indo-European theory from that of a lost civilization? Not much, as one difference is the period, and the other is the geographical area (the present theory presupposes the ocean crossing). So, how reasonable is it for one theory to be officially adopted by science and the other to be out of the question? We are used to rejecting anything opposed to the established views, but during human history, all the great pioneers did precisely that: challenged the status quo.

“We're moving at a snail's pace compared to what's available out there. These kids are going to change the world if we let them. Or, they won't because we stopped them.” “I think that the biggest issue in science it's our inability to share our stories.” Serena has dedicated her life to advancing science and science education while working with the nation's most promising youth. Dr. Serena McCalla was raised in New York City and fell in love with science as an elementary school student. She earned her bachelor's degree, as a double major, in Biological Science and African American & African Studies from the State University of New York at Binghamton University with intentions to become an ER physician. However, she quickly realized she was more inspired by research than medicine. To satisfy her craving for deeper scientific understandings, Dr. Serena McCalla earned an MS degree in Hematology/Microbiology, a Ph.D. that explored the use of diagnostic tests to improve the comprehension of genetics, photosynthesis, and respiration in secondary and collegiate Courses. Dr. McCalla's teaching experience began shortly after earning her bachelor's degree. In the classroom, her appreciation for the sciences became more profound as the students exposed her to nuances of various scientific disciplines including material science, nanotechnology, computer science, computational biology, and physics. Using her growing knowledge of science fields outside of her degrees, Dr. McCalla founded the iResearch Corporation while working as the Science Research Coordinator for Jericho UFSD, Jericho, NY.  The iResearch Corporation is the parent company of iResearch Foundation, iResearch Institute, iResearch Academy, and iResearch Science. These companies help Dr. McCalla share her research practices with educators and students from around the globe. The iResearch Foundation supports underrepresented and underprivileged students' participation in the iResearch Institute and iResearch Academy. These programs promote science research method training and review of fundamental and advanced sciences by conducting laboratory experimentation and data science/bioinformatics data analysis and research to test novel hypotheses. Additionally, the iResearch Institute and iResearch Academy review the scientific method and research method practices through its international programs. The scientific training of these students encourages them to a) systematically address the use of the scientific method during the completion of projects, b) complete novel experimentation, and c) promote expertise in presenting and writing journal-worthy papers. Secondarily, Dr. McCalla is the Science Research Coordinator for Jericho Union Free School District (UFSD) and designed her curriculum to foster excellence in scientific research.  The Jericho UFSD program has become one of the preeminent science research programs in the United States. Under Dr. McCalla's tutelage, the school district is lauded annually for its exemplary performance in the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) and Regeneron (formally Intel) Science Talent Search (STS) competitions producing over 80 scholars and 15 National finalists. The iResearch Corporation parallels the environment Dr. McCalla built at Jericho High School and UFSD, the culture of her classroom and lab brings forth copious avenues to help students excel in science, math, bioinformatics, data science, and engineering research. She enjoys that each day provides a new opportunity to encourage students to explore and impact the future of science and society. A natural competitor, Dr. Serena McCalla is not only a science research enthusiast and professional; she also considers herself a science geek and competition supporter. She is the President of the New York State Science and Engineering Fair (NYSSEF; 2014 - present) because she believes in promoting students' academic excellence and encouraging accompanied recognition in science. Her most pivotal goal is to foster student learning and research to extend past successes in their universities and ultimately manifest themselves in the global arena. Dr. McCalla believes these works will propel this generation of students to improve life on this planet as we know it. Dr. McCalla has earned numerous awards for teaching and mentoring. Awards she has received include the U.S. Presidential Scholar Program Teacher Recognition Award (2023, 2017, & 2010), the Distinguished Teacher Award from the Harvard Club of Long Island (2016 & 2012), the Teacher of Merit Award earned annually from Regeneron/Intel Science Talent Search (2023 - 2010), received an honorary minor planet (named Serena McCalla) from MIT Lincoln Laboratory, and the U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force funded Outstanding Teacher Award in association with the Junior Science and Humanities Symposium (JSHS). Dr. McCalla's students have won virtually all STEM competitions that are publicly accessible regionally, nationally, and internationally. To conclude, Dr. McCalla had the unique experience of participating as a principal subject in the National Geographic documentary Science Fair. The immensely likable film chronicles the importance of science fairs in the high school learning experience. The documentary highlights the trials, tribulations, and successes of the Jericho High School students in the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF). The documentary was selected for and premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, and was honored by winning the festival's first-ever overall Festival Favorite Award. The documentary also earned additional awards, including an Academy Emmy Award. Dr. McCalla is again a principal character in the upcoming National Geographic TV/Disney+ docuseries released on December 10, 2023, called Science Fair: the Series. Dr. McCalla has also participated in speaking engagements, commercials, and panels for Disney+, National Geographic, and XSTEM. She is also a newly named National Geographic Explorer, receiving the Wayfinder Award in 2023. The Wayfinder Grant supported the design of a new science research competition entitled “The Lost Einsteins”. Dr. McCalla hopes to continue to bolster the brilliance and determination of future scientists. In addition, she encourages her students to follow her quote- “if you dream it, complete the work to make your dream reality”. McCalla aspires to support all students to make a difference by discovering something new within themselves and the world. R.O.G. Takeaway Tips: Find your passion. Share your story. Anything is possible if you have enough passion and determination to put the work in to make your dreams a reality. Do what you believe in and benefit the world. Resources: Serena McCalla on Facebook (@serena.mccalla) Serena McCalla on YouTube (@SerenaMcCallaiRC) Serena McCalla on Instagram (@serenamccalla) Serena McCalla on Twitter/X (@iresearchsci) Serena McCalla on LinkedIn (in/serena-mccalla-iresearchcorporation) IResearchCorporation.com iResearchFoundation.com iResearchInstitute.com Defining Your Own Future with Dr. Serena McCalla Long Island Teacher Stars In New Documentary Dr. Serena McCalla and Robbi Barrat on Science Fair Doc Where to find R.O.G. Podcast: R.O.G on YouTube R.O.G on Apple Podcasts R.O.G on Spotify How diverse is your network?  N.D.I. Network Diversity Index What is your Generosity Style?  Generosity Quiz Credits: Dr. Serena McCalla, Sheep Jam Productions, Host Shannon Cassidy, Bridge Between, Inc. Coming Next: Please join us next week, Episode 162, Building Bridges Coaching Tips for Generous Leaders with Shannon Cassidy. 

We've heard mindset is everything. Limiting Beliefs have been a popular (mainstream) way of expanding a restricted mind. But when you have a spiritual issue, you can affirm and challenge your thinking all you want and still not see the progress you should see.Strongholds are the spiritual parallels to Limiting Beliefs, but not quite equal. Strongholds are stronger and tricker to detect, in large part because mainstream culture doesn't even talk about it. Secondarily, many don't know how to take Strongholds down!This is Spiritual Warfare and it could be affecting your life and relationships right now, keeping you in negative cycles and ruts, despite how hard you try to get out of it.There is a way out! You need the right tools and the right strategy.Reattach Program1-on-1 Interest FormBible StudyThank you for your support!$taychand PayPal Venmo Website: https://www.iamtaylorchandler.com/Instagram: @iamtaylorchandler YouTube: @iamtaylorchandlerThreads: @iamtaylorchandler

Research from Public Personnel Management found that training alone leads to a 22% increase in productivity, while that impact jumps to 88% with a combination of training and coaching. So how can you maximize the impact of your training and coaching programs? Shawnna Sumaoang: Hi and welcome to the Win Win Podcast. I'm your host, Shawnna Sumaoang. Join us as we dive into changing trends in the workplace and how to navigate them successfully. Here to discuss this topic is Jonathan Easterling, senior sales enablement trainer at Ncontracts. Thanks for joining, Jonathan! I'd love for you to tell us about yourself, your background, and your role. Jonathan Easterling: Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me today, Shawnna. I really appreciate it. As you’re saying, my name is Jonathan Easterling. I am the senior sales enablement trainer at Ncontracts currently. I’m just outside of Denver in a town called Fort Collins. Leading up to Ncontracts, I’ve been in various B2B selling jobs, led team management, and went on the traditional path. Being in management, you have the opportunity to develop your team. I really enjoyed that piece. I had a chance quite a few years ago now to jump into training and I have not looked back ever since. SS: I love that. Now to start, I’d love to hear from you. Can you share a little bit from your perspective about the connection between training and coaching and how the two can complement each other? JE: I hear this often when these two aspects are decoupled and the way that I think about it is I think of my sellers as fighter jets. We give them the core skills and the competencies to really get them off the runway. That’s where the training kind of fuels the thrusters. We got him up in the air, but the coaching is the aileron. The coaching has the seller moving towards the target and when we decouple the training from the coaching, then we’re leaving a seller with really all thrust and no vector. Sellers, as we know, really want to get after it and they’re happy to fly hard and fast with thrust only. We have to make sure that we’re jumping in post-training and we’re making sure that that coaching is keeping the direction true. SS: I love that. Now we have a theme going on around what good looks like. I’d love to hear from you. What does good training and coaching look like? In other words, what are your best practices for building an effective training and coaching strategy? JE: What good looks like is kind of a varietal question. It hits differently for every organization and that’s what I initially thought when I approached that. As I pulled myself to a little bit higher level, which I think is an enabler we have to do, I realized that that’s actually kind of not the case. I want to do a quick little reframe if I may, what does good training feel like to the trainees? When I looked at it from that aspect, I was like, okay, well, what’s the goal? What’s the goal here? The goal of any training is to get the skill and the will levels matched, and ideally, both those levels are very high. The reps feel empowered to do what they want to do and they are excited to do it. Now, I break it down into just a couple of different categories when I’m approaching this. For me, what good looks like in my organization is tiered, digestive, digestible, and iterative. Let's just take a peek at a couple of those. Tiered, which means, it’s not a blanket approach. This is targeted, prescriptive, and it’s going to be different for each level of employee. We all know we can’t just deploy one program and say, okay, all right, good job everybody, let's call it a day. At the seller tier, they may need something a little more technical, a little more point-and-click, and maybe a little more role-plays or gamification. At the leadership tier, we may need a different level of technical skillset. Maybe they need something a little more administrative, or maybe they need more soft skills and more training on coaching or coaching on coaching to be able to implement that training correctly. It is all iterative. Luckily, I was part of an organization early on that taught me how to fail forward and really gave me the opportunity to do that. I’m not afraid, and my organizations are not ever afraid to go back and relaunch and edit what we’ve previously done. We don’t really carry that level of indignance with us. We are not under the belief that managers should handle that whenever small iterations come down after training. We go back and republish, we relearn from the mistake and we just do it better next time. It’s iterative. First of all, it’s digestible. Now this one’s difficult. I’ll tell a quick little story about this. I train at a jiu-jitsu gym and one of the instructors has an adaptive living class called be bold. When you go into a bold class, you will see people of all physical capabilities. You’ll have professional fighters and you’ll have quadriplegics in the same room getting a sweat on and working out. When I looked at that, I said whoa, everyone in this room is baselined and engaged. Now from a training aspect, that is a huge cold water over the head that you’re saying, wow, if this can happen, what am I missing in my groups that are highly vetted? We want to make sure that it’s digestible to everybody in the group. This isn't easy. To do that, we can over-communicate with our stakeholders. This is going to be another bucket of cold water for some, for folks, don’t skip your postmortems. If you fail, really rip it apart. Sit in that for a minute and make sure it doesn’t happen again or at least that you learned a lesson to take from the next time. Don’t be afraid to mess up every now and then. I think this is a really interesting time for enablement altogether as we look at what good looks like. Enablement has been completely upended by the change in the workforce. This is one profession that has really set the level playing field. People that have been here for 15 years, people that have been here for five years, they’re kind of on an equal playing foot, figuring out what works in this virtual hybrid environment today. Super exciting to be able to find out what good looks like. You might find something seriously game-changing if you flip your own script. SS: I love that advice. Now you’ve leveraged Highspot to train and coach reps, both at Ncontracts and in a previous role. What are some of the common challenges that you’ve experienced when it comes to training and coaching reps and how has Highspot helped you overcome these? JE: I think initially when we have this bevy of information that we have to get inter-departmentally down to the sellers, there’s a couple of key pieces of information that the sellers really need. Finding that content without a repository that’s very simple to navigate, ends up being this byzantine conduit of channels to try to get the seller something that’s actionable. As we know, if they’re not actionable on it very quickly, poof will be gone, the training not strong, and it’s going to be really tough to actually get them to implement it. When we have a platform, like Highspot that categorizes and organizes a taxonomy that is well beyond any of its competitors in terms of simplicity, user-friendliness, and navigation, now we’re getting those sellers, the type of content that is super relevant to them at the seller's speed. We need to get things at the seller’s speed. They are going to move fast and they’re going to look for something very quickly. If they can’t find it, then they’ll make up the narrative and we don’t want that. We want them to have the best information possible and always feel equipped to do their job the best. SS: Fantastic. Now to shift gears a little bit, one thing that caught my eye was on LinkedIn you had shared a few tenants that you collected throughout your career. One of them is to better the environment, better the individuals. How do you help create a healthy sales culture through your training and coaching programs? JE: I love this saying, thank you so much for being able to pick it out. Luckily in sales enablement, we do that as kind of a proxy. Now, initially, when we’re creating these sales training and programs, let’s start from the beginning, what do we have to do as enablement? We have to stay available. We have a lot of backend stuff, like presentations, events, and curriculum that we’re creating. We have to be present for our sellers initially because they’re telling us what’s wrong, they’re telling us what’s working and they’re telling us what’s not working. They’re really our first toe in the water for a temp check. Second, but I almost call this 1A is about transparency. There’s no guesswork. Right. That old adage. If it’s not in Salesforce, it doesn’t exist. Well, luckily with the analytics that Highspot provides when we’re looking at things like usage time, click-throughs, the specific calls to action that we can set, now we’re setting a level of transparency within the organization that says, hey, we’re all here to do the same thing. Let’s talk about some concrete objectives that we’re working towards. SS: I think that is fantastic. What are some of your best practices for creating effective training programs in Highspot? JE: When we’re looking at an effective training program, I’m going to draw it up a little high level because, again, it looks different to every organization. I look at the overall principles. One of the big mistakes that I made early on in Highspot was because it is so exciting to get everything so direct to my reps, I got kind of confused and I created a couple of sales plays that had way too many calls to action. What I took from that is a best practice for an effective training program which is that it has a single or very few calls to action. As I started to implement fewer, more specific calls to action, I found that I had better uptake of the completion of the call to action. I got less recidivism into the programs and I got a better overall average initial scores. That would be the first thing I’d say, just try to focus on as few objectives as possible to get your sellers actionable on those objectives. Secondly, to kind of harp on what I had said before, iterate, iterate, iterate. Highspot has an amazing function that you are able to not only curate your content, but you can very simply replace a new piece of content that has come out and you’re able to see the longitudinal data of the old piece of content and the new piece of content. With that, you can iterate your approach, you can go back to product and marketing and say, hey, we actually need to iterate this piece of content, but being hypercritical about the things that you’ve done and then letting the data speak for itself. Oftentimes we can get emotionally tied to this project and this baby that we’ve created. Luckily, with Highspot, we’re able to pull that emotion out of it and say, oh shoot, objectively that just didn’t work like I thought it would. Now, let’s actually make this baby the one I really wanted, but we want all of our babies. SS: So relatable. How do you then reinforce that training through coaching? JE: When I’m reinforcing training through coaching, for me, it’s important to be able to, again, I’m going to call back to those specific calls to action that I was able to develop in the past. I can coach on things that are soft skills, like, good introduction or like not hard pivoting from process and value-based discovery. I can teach these things, but when I need to have technical-based coaching, there’s really no replacement for a hard analytic-driven conversation. When I’m pulling that data down, I think for me personally, and from what I’ve heard from my reps it really softens the blow instead of it being heard as a personal thing. It’s like, hey, I really didn’t like that introduction, but when we combine things like integration of Gong calls with our Highspot scripts into our sales plays, then we’re creating a holistic view of the sales motion and we can say, hey, actually we use this introduction over here, but it actually kind of led to a little bit of a slippage. Let’s try a different introduction that maybe one of your other seller friends had used, again, going back to that transparency part of it and we can have a more factual conversation that says, hey, we’re just going to get you from this step to this step. SS: I think that is fantastic. Now, coaching can often take a backseat, especially as we all get busy, but teams really can’t afford to let that happen. I know that you are adamant that coaching is a key priority within your organization. Why is coaching such a critical part of the formula for improving sales productivity? JE: I’m going to go back to the jet analogy, thrust, and vector. As the jet is moving through the air, i.e. as your seller is progressing through a sale to land at the close, we all know the air has weather, i.e. there are other things within that organization, within that client, with their personal life, with their social life, professional, whatever, that is happening. That can really throw a seller for a loop. You give somebody a call, you’re in stage three, and suddenly you’re like, my dog just died, and you’re like, man, how do you pivot off of that one? To be able to have a coach, someone that is close to you during those sales and during those moments, again, with that transparency, with that factual analytic driven conversation to get you to that next level you cannot separate those two. When we’re going through coaching as in training a coach, we can use dashboards within the platform to get middle-upper management to buy in. Now, how do we do that? Well, it’s very simple to create your own comprehensive dashboards in Highspot. What we can do is we can just hang out. We can hang out with our managers, we can meet with them to identify the metrics that we need to drive with them together you can create these dashboards. This does a couple of things initially. It makes it super easy for them to jump in and check out where their team is at. They’re already pumped at that point. Secondarily, this is like a mini discovery session for us. We get to find out what are the overarching drivers, are the quick objectives, what are the long-term objectives, what are our quarterlies and what are our annuals. We can always start to have those in mind as we’re developing future trainings down the road. It’s kind of a two-pronged approach. SS: I love that. Now you mentioned that you aim to encourage coaching and mentoring through the Highspot platform. Can you talk to us a little bit about how you approach this as well? JE: The aforementioned meeting with the sales managers is one way that I like to build rapport within a new company. I like to come in and say, hey, I’m actually here for you because that’s what I’m here to do. I need to translate what’s important to you and get it to the sellers so we can then we can all go have our quarterly party every year. One of the things that we implemented recently that I thought was really fun was utilizing the Highspot social aspect. You can comment, you can like, and you can share edits. There is a strong social aspect of it that’s super easy to use. What we’re doing is we’re implementing what we call an SOS spot, or a support on-site spot. This is to increase social interaction and we’re hyper-focusing on this page as a social forum for people to post Gong calls, post emails and get feedback within the organization. It is like a war room where we unabashedly can tear each other apart and go back out into the marketplace and close some deals there. SS: I think that is very cool. JE: We’ll see if they do it. SS: Now you also mentioned how important it is to partner with sales managers to help them be effective coaches and mentors. What are some ways that you leverage Highspot to do that? JE: As the initial Olympic run of the torch comes through onboarding, that’s how I like to think of us marching down with the torch, lighting up everybody’s brains with all the new knowledge through onboarding, the managers are what is providing that ongoing vector through the air. They’re coaching every day. They see their employees more times a day. They just hear more from the reps. When we’re partnering closely with them initially, that means We’re going to empower them to find the data themselves. We’re going to get very close to them and we’re going to let them know how powerful Highspot is to give them the ability to have real-time insights into what their reps are doing. For a sales manager, data is king. They love getting data. When we build it in conjunction with them, they have awesome buy-in, and they’re really empowered to use it because it’s metrics that they care about directly. It’s important that we’re meeting between departments as well because our business development manager is going to have different metrics than our enterprise has, and different than our mid-market needs. We have to meet with each of them because then we can start tying the threads together. Now you’re asking about partnering with sales managers. For us here at Ncontracts and for my previous roles using Highspot, sales plays, and pitch styles have been absolutely integral in providing sales managers with that sales flow motion view. Sometimes we can get a little disconnected by viewing the pipeline in our sales motion in Salesforce. It can kind of seem like a stop-and-go, but with a sales play and a pitch style, you get a holistic view of how a seller is going to move through what you intended from point A to point B. This is what I call from contact to contract. We have a path we want the sellers to take. We partner early with our managers to identify exactly what those calls to action we want them to enact. Let's say at stage four, are they using the ABC proposal deck? Then we get with those managers and say, hey, does this sales play actually feed the data that drives your metrics? Are we actually putting information out there that you can pop into that dashboard that we created and see that it’s actually accurate? This is why it is important to go back and meet with that manager and say, hey, is this still relevant? Or, hey, I changed this, do you want to add this type of metric to it? SS: I love that. On the note of metrics, last question for you, how do you measure the business impact of your training and coaching programs, and how has Highspot helped influence the business impact? JE: You’re going for a loaded one on the closer, huh? I see how it is, Shawnna. Oftentimes we can find ourselves in a tricky predicament in enablement. A lot of the time as enablement, we fall into the revenue department. Our metrics can align very closely with sales, such as time to close and average deal size, but we don’t necessarily have the direct line like a sales manager would coax that trajectory as it’s happening. Highspot has some features to help us identify exactly what has or hasn’t contributed to the goal of closing more business. Integrations with things like Salesforce can help me see exactly what piece of content was used or wasn’t used attributing to our slippage and win. We can see exactly what content is converting and we can continue to make that a best practice. I’m going to go back and I’m going to say that the transparency within the platform, to be able to have a factual-driven conversation when sellers are out there getting beat up every day on the phone is important. It is important to identify that this isn't an emotional thing, this is just a factual thing that we can get better at. When we’re looking at something that ties directly to revenue, there are interactions in Highspot that we can partner with marketing to share. This could be our click-through, our form fills, or our pitch styles with the content that we’re using, we compare directly interdepartmentally, just like we do to create training programs to then report back and see what the true contributors are to them. Having that level of insight when we obviously want more budget every year, we want to substantiate ourselves. We want to show how much we are contributing and are absolutely integral. SS: I love that. Jonathan, thank you so much for taking the time to meet with me today. I really appreciate it. JE: You’re very welcome. Thank you so much for having me. SS: Thank you for listening to this episode of the Win Win podcast. Be sure to tune in next time for more insights on how you can maximize enablement success with Highspot.

Jeremy Snyder, Founder of FireTail, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss his career journey and what led him to start FireTail. Jeremy reveals what's changed in cloud since he was an AE and AWS, and walks through how the need for customization in cloud security has led to a boom in the number of security companies out there. Corey and Jeremy also discuss the costs of cloud security, and Jeremy points out some of his observations in the world of cloud security pricing and packaging. About JeremyJeremy is the founder and CEO of FireTail.io, an end-to-end API security startup. Prior to FireTail, Jeremy worked in M&A at Rapid7, a global cyber leader, where he worked on the acquisitions of 3 companies during the pandemic. Jeremy previously led sales at DivvyCloud, one of the earliest cloud security posture management companies, and also led AWS sales in southeast Asia. Jeremy started his career with 13 years in cyber and IT operations. Jeremy has an MBA from Mason, a BA in computational linguistics from UNC, and has completed additional studies in Finland at Aalto University. Jeremy speaks 5 languages and has lived in 5 countries. Once, Jeremy went 5 days without seeing another human, but saw plenty of reindeer.Links Referenced: Firetail: https://firetail.io Email: jeremy@firetail.io TranscriptAnnouncer: Hello, and welcome to Screaming in the Cloud with your host, Chief Cloud Economist at The Duckbill Group, Corey Quinn. This weekly show features conversations with people doing interesting work in the world of cloud, thoughtful commentary on the state of the technical world, and ridiculous titles for which Corey refuses to apologize. This is Screaming in the Cloud.Corey: Welcome to Screaming in the Cloud. I'm Corey Quinn. My guest today is Jeremy Snyder, who's the founder at Firetail. Jeremy, thank you for joining me today. I appreciate you taking the time from your day to suffer my slings and arrows.Jeremy: My pleasure, Corey. I'm really happy to be here.Corey: So, we'll get to a point where we talk about what you're up to these days, but first, I want to dive into the jobs of yesteryear because over a decade ago, you did a stint at AWS doing sales. And not to besmirch your hard work, but it feels like at the time, that must have been a very easy job. Because back then it really felt across the board like the sales motion was basically responding to, “Well, why should we do business with you?” And the response is, “Oh, you misunderstand. You have 87 different accounts scattered throughout your organization. I'm just here to give you visibility, governance, and possibly some discounting over that.” It feels like times have changed in a lot of ways since then. Is that accurate?Jeremy: Well, yeah, but I will correct a couple of things in there. In my days—Corey: Oh, please.Jeremy: —almost nobody had more than one account. I was in the one account, no VPCs, you know, you only separate your workloads by tagging days of AWS. So, our job was a lot, actually, harder at the time because people couldn't wrap their heads around the lack of subnetting, the lack of workload segregation. All of that was really, like, brand new to people, and so you were trying to tell them like, “Hey, you're going to be launching something on an EC2 instance that's in the same subnet as everybody else's EC2 instance.” And people were really worried about lateral traffic and sniffing and what could their neighbors or other customers on AWS see. And by the way, I mean, this was the customers who even believed it was real. You know, a lot of the conversations we went into with people was, “Oh, so Amazon bought too many servers and you're trying to sell us excess capacity.”Corey: That legend refuses to die.Jeremy: And, you know, it is a legend. That is not at all the genesis of AWS. And you know, the genesis is pretty well publicized at this point; you can go just google, “how did AWS started?” You can find accurate stuff around that.Corey: I did it a few years ago with multiple Amazon execs and published it, and they said definitively that that story was not true. And you can say a lot about AWS folks, and I assure you, I do, but I also do not catch them lying to my face, ever. And as soon as that changes, well, now we're going to have a different series of [laugh] conversations that are a lot more pointed. But they've earned some trust there.Jeremy: Yeah, I would agree. And I mean, look, I saw it internally, the way that Amazon built stuff was at such a breakneck pace, that challenge that they had that was, you know, the published version of events for why AWS got created, developers needed a place to test code. And that was something that they could not get until they got EC2, or could not get in a reasonably enough timeframe for it to be, you know, real-time valid or relevant for what was going on with the company. So, you know, that really is the genesis of things, and you know, the early services, SQS, S3, EC2, they all really came out of that journey. But yeah, in our days at AWS, there was a lot of ease, in the sense that lots of customers had pent-up frustrations with their data center providers or their colo providers and lots of customers would experience bursts and they would have capacity constraints and they would need a lot of the features that AWS offered, but we had to overcome a lot of technical misunderstandings and trust issues and, you know, oh, hey, Amazon just wants to sniff our data and they want to see what we're up to, and explain to them how encryption works and why they have their own keys and all these things. You know, we had to go through a lot of that. So, it wasn't super easy, but there was some element of it where, you know, just demand actually did make some aspects easy.Corey: What have you seen change since, well I guess ten years ago and change now? And let's be clear, you don't work in AWS sales, but you also are not oblivious to what the market is doing.Jeremy: For sure. For sure. I left AWS in 2011 and I've stayed in the cloud ecosystem pretty much ever since. I did spend some time working for a system integrator where all we did was migrate customers to AWS. And then I spent about five, six years working on cloud security primarily focused on AWS, a lot of GCP, a little bit of Azure.So yeah, I mean, I certainly stay up to date with what's going on in the state of cloud. I mean, look, Cloud has evolved from this kind of, you know, developer-centric, very easy-to-launch type of platform into a fully-fledged enterprise IT platform and all of the management structures and all of the kind of bells and whistles that you would want that you probably wanted from your old VMware networks but never really got, they're all there now. It is a very different ballgame in terms of what the platform actually enables you to do, but fundamentally, a lot of the core building block constructs and the primitives are still kind of driving the heart of it. It's just a lot of nicer packaging.What I think is really interesting is actually how customers' usage of cloud platforms has changed over time. And I always think of it and kind of like the, going back to my days, what did I see from my customers? And it was kind of like the month zero, “I just don't believe you.” Like, “This thing can't be real, I don't trust it, et cetera.” Month one is, I'm going to assign some developer to work on some very low-priority, low-risk workload. In my days, that was SharePoint, by the way. Like, nine times out of ten, the first workload that customers stood up was a SharePoint instance that they had to share across multiple locations.Corey: That thing falls over all the time anyway. May as well put it in the cloud where it can do so without taking too much else down with it. Was that the thinking or?Jeremy: Well, and the other thing about it at the time, Corey, was that, like, so many customers worked in this, like, remote-first world, right? And so, SharePoint was inevitably hosted at somebody's office. And so, the workers at that office were so privileged over the workers everywhere else. The performance gap between consuming SharePoint in one location versus another was like, night and day. So, you know, employees in headquarters were like, “Yeah, SharePoint's great.” Employees in branch offices were like, “This thing is terrible,” you know? “It's so slow. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it.”And so, Cloud actually became, like, this neutral location to move SharePoint to that kind of had an equal performance for every office. And so, that was, I think, one of the reasons and it was also, you know, it had capacity problems, and customers were right at that point, uploading tons of static documents to it, like Word documents, Office attachments, et cetera, and so they were starting to have some of these, like, real disk sprawl problems with SharePoint. So, that was kind of the month one problem. And only after they get through kind of month two, three, and four, and they go through, “I don't understand my bill,” and, “Help me understand security implications,” then they think about, like, “Hey, should we go back and look at how we're running that SharePoint stuff and maybe do it more efficiently and, like, move those static Office documents onto S3?” And so on, and so on.And that's kind of one of the big things that I've changed that I would say is very different from, like, 2011 to now, is there's enough sophistication around understanding that, like, you don't just translate what you're doing in your office or in your data center to what you're doing on cloud. Or if you do, you're not getting the most out of your investment.Corey: I'm curious to get your take on how you have seen cloud adoption patterns differ, specifically tied to geo. I mean, I tend to see it from a world where there's a bifurcation of between born-in-the-cloud SaaS-type companies where one workload is 80% of their bill or whatnot, and of the big enterprises where the largest single component is 3%. So, it's a very different slice there. But I'm curious what you would see from a sales perspective, looking across a lot of different geographic boundaries because we're all, on some level, biased based upon where we tend to spend our time doing business. I'm in San Francisco, which is its very own strange universe that has a certain perspective about itself that is occasionally accurate, but not usually. But it's a big world out there.Jeremy: It is. One thing that I would say it's interesting. I spent my AWS days based in Singapore, living in Singapore at the time, and I was working with customers across Southeast Asia. And to your point, Corey, one of the most interesting things was this little bit of a leapfrog effect. Data centers in Asia-Pac, especially in places like the Philippines, were just terrible.You know, the Philippines had, like, the second highest electricity rates in Asia at the time, only behind Japan, even though the GDP per capita gap between those two countries is really large. And yet you're paying, like, these super-high electricity rates. Secondarily, data centers in the Philippines were prone to flooding. And so, a lot of companies in the Philippines never went the data center route. You know, they just hosted servers in their offices, you know, they had a bunch of desktop machines in a cubicle, that kind of situation because, like, data centers themselves were cost prohibitive.So, you saw this effect a little bit like cell phones in a lot of the developing world. Landline infrastructure was too expensive or never got done for whatever reason, and people went straight to cell phones. So actually, what I saw in a lot of emerging markets in Asia was, screw the data center; we're going to go straight to cloud. So, I saw a lot of Asia-Pac get a little bit ahead of places like Europe where you had, for instance, a lot of long-term data center contracts and you had customers really locked in. And we saw this over the next, let's say between, like, say, 2014 and 2018 when I was working with a systems integrator, and then started working on cloud security.We saw that US customers and Asia-Pac customers didn't have these obligations; European customers, a lot of them were still working off their lease, and still, you know, I'm locked into let's just say Equinix Frankfurt for another five years before I can think about cloud migration. So, that's definitely one aspect that I observed. Second thing I think is, like, the earlier you started, the earlier you reached the point where you realize that actually there is value in a lot of managed services and there actually is value in getting away from the kind of server mindset around EC2.Corey: It feels like there's a lot of, I want to call it legacy thinking, in some ways, except that's unfair because legacy remains a condescending engineering term for something that makes money. The problem that you have is that you get bound by choices you didn't necessarily realize you were making, and then something becomes revenue-bearing. And now there's a different way to do it, or you learn more about the platform, or the platform itself evolves, and, “Oh, I'm going to rewrite everything to take advantage of this,” isn't happening. So, it winds up feeling like, yeah, we're treating the cloud like a data center. And sometimes that's right; sometimes that's a problem, but ultimately, it still becomes a significant challenge. I mean, there's no way around it. And I don't know what the right answer is, I don't know what the fix is going to be, but it always feels like I'm doing something wrong somewhere.Jeremy: I think a lot of customers go through that same set of feelings and they realize that they have the active runway problem, where you know, how do you do maintenance on an active runway? You kind of can't because you've got flights going in and out. And I think you're seeing this in your part of the world at SFO with a lot of the work that got done in, like, 2018, 2019 where they kind of had to close down a runway and had, like, near misses because they consolidated all flights onto the one active runway, right? It is a challenge. And I actually think that some of the evolution that I've seen our customers go through over the last, like, two, three years, is starting to get away from that challenge.So, to your point, when you have revenue-bearing workloads that you can't really modify and things are pretty tightly coupled, it is very hard to make change. But when you start to have it where things are broken down into more microservices, it makes it a lot easier to cycle out Service A for Service B, or let's say more accurately, Service A1 with Service A2 where you can kind of just, like, plug and play different APIs, and maybe, you know, repoint services at the new stuff as they come online. But getting to that point is definitely a painful process. It does require architectural changes and often those architectural changes aren't at the infrastructure level; they're actually inside the application or they're between things like applications and third-party dependencies where the customers may not have full control over the dependencies, and that does become a real challenge for people to break down and start to attack. You've heard of the Strangler Methodology?Corey: Oh, yes. Both in terms of the Boston Strangler, as well—Jeremy: [laugh]. Right.Corey: As the Strangler design pattern.Jeremy: Yeah, yeah. But I think, like, getting to that is challenging until, like, once you understand that you want to do that, it makes a lot of sense. But getting to the starting point for that journey can be really challenging for a lot of customers because it involves stakeholders that are often not involved on infrastructure conversations, and organizational dysfunction can really creep in there, where you have teams that don't necessarily play nice together, not for any particular reason, but just because historically they haven't had to. So, that's something that I've seen and definitely takes a little bit of cultural work to overcome.Corey: When you take a look across the board of cloud adoption, it's interesting to have seen the patterns that wound up unfolding. Your career path, though, seem to have gotten away from the selling cloud and into some strange directions leading up to what you're doing now, where you founded Firetail. What do you folks do?Jeremy: We do API security. And it really is kind of the culmination of, like, the last several years and what we saw. I mean, to your point, we saw customers going through kind of Phase One, Two, Three of cloud adoption. Phase One, the, you know, for lack of a better phrase, lift-and-shift and Phase Two, the kind of first step on the path towards quote-unquote, “Enlightenment,” where they start to see that, like, actually, we can get better operational efficiency if we, you know, move our databases off of EC2 and on to RDS and we move our static content onto S3.And then Phase Three, where they realize actually EC2 kind of sucks, and it's a lot of management overhead, it's a lot of attack surface, I hate having to bake AMIs. What I really want to do is just drop some code on a platform and run my application. And that might be serverless. That might be containerized, et cetera. But one path or the other, where we pretty much always see customers ending up is with an API sitting on a network.And that API is doing two things. It front-ends a data set and at front-ends a set of functionality, and most cases. And so, what that really means is that the thing that sits on the network that does represent the attack surface, both in terms of accessing data or in terms of let's say, like, abusing an application is an API. And that's what led us to where I am today, what led me and my co-founder Riley to, you know, start the company and try to make it easier for customers to build more secure APIs. So yeah, that's kind of the change that I've observed over the last few years that really, as you said, lead to what I'm doing now.Corey: There is a lot of, I guess, challenge in the entire space when we bound that to—even API security, though as soon as you going down the security path it starts seeming like there's a massive problem, just in terms of proliferation of companies that each do different things, that each focus on different parts of the story. It feels like everything winds up spitting out huge amounts of security-focused, or at least security-adjacent telemetry. Everything has findings on top of that, and at least in the AWS universe, “Oh, we have a service that spits out a lot of that stuff. We're going to launch another service on top of it that, of course, cost more money that then winds up organizing it for you. And then another service on top of that that does the same thing yet again.” And it feels like we're building a tower of these things that are just… shouldn't just be a feature in the original underlying thing that turns down the noise? “Well, yes, but then we couldn't sell you three more things around it.”Jeremy: Yeah, I mean—Corey: Agree? Disagree?Jeremy: I don't entirely disagree. I think there is a lot of validity on what you just said there. I mean, if you look at like the proliferation of even the security services, and you see GuardDuty and Config and Security Hub, or things like log analysis with Athena or log analysis with an ELK stack, or OpenSearch, et cetera, I mean, you see all these proliferation of services around that. I do think the thing to bear in mind is that for most customers, like, security is not a one size fits all. Security is fundamentally kind of a risk management exercise, right? If it wasn't a risk management exercise, then all security would really be about is, like, keeping your data off of networks and making sure that, like, none of your data could ever leave.But that's not how companies work. They do interact with the outside world and so then you kind of always have this decision and this trade-off to make about how much data you expose. And so, when you have that decision, then it leads you down a path of determining what data is important to your organization and what would be most critical if it were breached. And so, the point of all of that is honestly that, like, security is not the same for you as it is for me, right? And so, to that end, you might be all about Security Hub, and Config instead of basic checks across all your accounts and all your active regions, and I might be much more about, let's say I'm quote-unquote, “Digital-native, cloud-native,” blah, blah, blah, I really care about detection and response on top of events.And so, I only care about log aggregation and, let's say, GuardDuty or Athena analysis on top of that because I feel like I've got all of my security configurations in Infrastructure as Code. So, there's not a right and wrong answer and I do think that's part of why there are a gazillion security services out there.Corey: On some level, I've been of the opinion for a while now that the cloud providers themselves should not necessarily be selling security services directly because, on some level, that becomes an inherent conflict of interest. Why make the underlying platform more secure or easier to use from a security standpoint when you can now turn that into a revenue source? I used to make comments that Microsoft Defender was a classic example of getting this right because they didn't charge for it and a bunch of antivirus companies screamed and whined about it. And then of course, Microsoft's like, “Oh, Corey saying nice things about us. We can't have that.” And they started charging for it. So okay, that more or less completely subverts my entire point. But it still feels squicky.Jeremy: I mean, I kind of doubt that's why they started charging for it. But—Corey: Oh, I refuse to accept that I'm not that influential. There we are.Jeremy: [laugh]. Fair enough.Corey: Yeah, I just can't get away from the idea that it feels squicky when the company providing the infrastructure now makes doing the secure thing on top of it into an investment decision.Jeremy: Yeah.Corey: “Do you want the crappy, insecure version of what we build or do you want the top-of-the-line secure version?” That shouldn't be a choice people have to make. Because people don't care about security until right after they really should have cared about security.Jeremy: Yeah. Look, and I think the changes to S3 configuration, for instance, kind of bear out your point. Like, it shouldn't be the case that you have to go through a lot of extra steps to not make your S3 data public, it should always be the case that, like, you have to go through a lot of steps if you want to expose your data. And then you have explicitly made a set of choices on your own to make some data public, right? So, I kind of agree with the underlying logic. I think the counterargument, if there is one to be made, is that it's not up to them to define what is and is not right for your organization.Because again, going back to my example, what is secure for you may not be secure for me because we might have very different modes of operation, we might have very different modes of building our infrastructure, deploying our infrastructure, et cetera. And I think every cloud provider would tell you, “Hey, we're just here to enable customers.” Now, do I think that they could be doing more? Do I think that they could have more secure defaults? You know, in general, yes, of course, they could. And really, like, the fundamentals of what I worry about are people building insecure applications, not so much people deploying infrastructure with bad configurations.Corey: It's funny, we talk about this now. Earlier today, I was lamenting some of the detritus from some of my earlier builds, where I've been running some of these things in my old legacy single account for a while now. And the build service is dramatically overscoped, just because trying to get the security permissions right, was an exercise in frustration at the time. It was, “Nope, that's not it. Nope, blocked again.”So, I finally said to hell with it, overscope it massively, and then with a, “Todo: fix this later,” which of course, never happened. And if there's ever a breach on something like that, I know that I'll have AWS wagging its finger at me and talking about the shared responsibility model, but it's really kind of a disaster plan of their own making because there's not a great way to say easily and explicitly—or honestly, by default the way Google Cloud does—of okay, by default, everything in this project can talk to everything in this project, but the outside world can't talk to any of it, which I think is where a lot of people start off. And the security purists love to say, “That's terrible. That won't work at a bank.” You're right, it won't, but a bank has a dedicated security apparatus, internally. They can address those things, whereas your individual student learner does not. And that's how you wind up with open S3 bucket monstrosities left and right.Jeremy: I think a lot of security fundamentalists would say that what you just described about that Google project structure, defeats zero trust, and you know, that on its own is actually a bad thing. I might counterargue and say that, like, hey, you can have a GCP project as a zero trust, like, first principle, you know? That can be the building block of zero trust for your organization and then it's up to you to explicitly create these trust relationships to other projects, and so on. But the thing that I think in what you said that really kind of does resonate with me in particular as an area that AWS—and really this case, just AWS—should have done better or should do better, is IAM permissions. Because every developer in the world that I know has had that exact experience that you described, which is, they get to a point where they're like, “Okay, this thing isn't working. It's probably something with IAM.”And then they try one thing, two things, and usually on the third or fourth try, they end up with a star permission, and maybe a comment in that IAM policy or maybe a Jira ticket that, you know, gets filed into backlog of, “Review those permissions at some point in the future,” which pretty much never happens. So, IAM in particular, I think, is one where, like, Amazon should do better, or should at least make it, like, easy for us to kind of graphically build an IAM policy that is scoped to least permissions required, et cetera. That one, I'll a hundred percent agree with your comments and your statement.Corey: As you take a look across the largest, I guess, environments you see, and as well as some of the folks who are just getting started in this space, it feels like, on some level, it's two different universes. Do you see points of commonality? Do you see that there is an opportunity to get the individual learner who's just starting on their cloud journey to do things that make sense without breaking the bank that they then can basically have instilled in them as they start scaling up as they enter corporate environments where security budgets are different orders of magnitude? Because it seems to me that my options for everything that I've looked at start at tens of thousands of dollars a year, or are a bunch of crappy things I find on GitHub somewhere. And it feels like there should be something between those two.Jeremy: In terms of training, or in terms of, like, tooling to build—Corey: In terms of security software across the board, which I know—Jeremy: Yeah.Corey: —is sort of a vague term. Like, I first discovered this when trying to find something to make sense of CloudTrail logs. It was a bunch of sketchy things off GitHub or a bunch of very expensive products. Same thing with VPC flow logs, same thing with trying to parse other security alerting and aggregate things in a sensible way. Like, very often it's, oh, there's a few very damning log lines surrounded by a million lines of nonsense that no one's going to look through. It's the needle in a haystack problem.Jeremy: Yeah, well, I'm really sorry if you spent much time trying to analyze VPC flow logs because that is just an exercise in futility. First of all, the level of information that's in them is pretty useless, and the SLA on actually, like, log delivery, A, whether it'll actually happen, and B, whether it will happen in a timely fashion is just pretty much non-existent. So—Corey: Oh, from a security perspective I agree wholeheartedly, but remember, I'm coming from a billing perspective, where it's—Jeremy: Ah, fair enough.Corey: —huh, we're taking a petabyte in and moving 300 petabytes between availability zones. It's great. It's a fun game called find whatever is chatty because, on some level, it's like, run two of whatever that is—or three—rather than having it replicate. What is the deal here? And just try to identify, especially in the godforsaken hellscape that is Kubernetes, what is that thing that's talking? And sometimes flow logs are the only real tool you've got, other than oral freaking tradition.Jeremy: But God forbid you forgot to tag your [ENI 00:24:53] so that the flow log can actually be attributed to, you know, what workload is responsible for it behind the scenes. And so yeah, I mean, I think that's a—boy that's a case study and, like, a miserable job that I don't think anybody would really want to have in this day and age.Corey: The timing of this is apt. I sent out my newsletter for the week a couple hours before this recording, and in the bottom section, I asked anyone who's got an interesting solution for solving what's talking to what with VPC flow logs, please let me know because I found this original thing that AWS put up as part of their workshops and a lab to figure this out, but other than that, it's more or less guess-and-check. What is the hotness? It's been a while since I explored the landscape. And now we see if the audience is helpful or disappoints me. It's all on you folks.Jeremy: Isn't the hotness to segregate every microservice into an account and run it through a load balancer so that it's like much more properly tagged and it's also consumable on an account-by-account basis for better attribution?Corey: And then everything you see winds up incurring a direct fee when passing through that load balancer, instead of the same thing within the same subnet being able to talk to one another for free.Jeremy: Yeah, yeah.Corey: So, at scale—so yes, for visibility, you're absolutely right. From a, I would like to spend less money giving it directly to Amazon, not so much.Jeremy: [unintelligible 00:26:08] spend more money for the joy of attribution of workload?Corey: Not to mention as well that coming into an environment that exists and is scaled out—which is sort of a prerequisite for me going in on a consulting project—and saying, “Oh, you should rebuild everything using serverless and microservice principles,” is a great way to get thrown out of the engagement in the first 20 minutes. Because yes, in theory, anyone can design something great, that works, that solves a problem on a whiteboard, but most of us don't get to throw the old thing away and build fresh. And when we do great, I'm greenfielding something; there's always constraints and challenges down the road that you don't see coming. So, you finally wind up building the most extensible thing in the universe that can handle all these things, and your business dies before you get to MVP because that takes time, energy and effort. There are many more companies that have died due to failure to find product-market fit than have died because, “Oh hey, your software architecture was terrible.” If you hit the market correctly, there is budget to fix these things down the road, whereas your code could be pristine and your company's still dead.Jeremy: Yeah. I don't really have a solution for you on that one, Corey [laugh].Corey: [laugh].Jeremy: I will come back to your one question—Corey: I was hoping you did.Jeremy: Yeah, sorry. I will come back to the question about, you know, how should people kind of get started in thinking about assessing security. And you know, to your point, look, I mean, I think Config is a low-ish cost, but should it cost anything? Probably not, at least for, like, basic CIS foundation benchmark checks. I mean, like, if the best practice that Amazon tells everybody is, “Turn on these 40-ish checks at last count,” you know, maybe those 40-ish checks should just be free and included and on in everybody's account for any account that you tag as production, right?Like, I will wholeheartedly agree with that sentiment, and it would be a trivial thing for Amazon to do, with one kind of caveat—and this is something that I think a lot of people don't necessarily understand—collecting all the required data for security is actually really expensive. Security is an extremely data-intensive thing at this day and age. And I have a former coworker who used to hate the expression that security is data science, but there is some truth in it at this point, other than the kind of the magic around it is not actually that big because there's not a lot of, let's say, heuristic analysis or magic that goes into what queries, et cetera. A lot of security is very rule-based. It's a lot of, you know, just binary checks: is this bit set to zero or one?And some of those things are like relatively simple, but what ends up inevitably happening is that customers want more out of it. They don't just want to know, is my security good or bad? They want to know things like is it good or bad now relative to last week? Has it gotten better or worse over time? And so, then you start accumulating lots of data and time series data, and that becomes really expensive.And secondarily, the thing that's really starting to happen more and more in the security world is correlation of multiple layers of data, infrastructure with applications, infrastructure with operating system, infrastructure with OS and app vulnerabilities, infrastructure plus vulnerabilities plus Kubernetes configurations plus API sitting at the edge of that. Because realistically, like, so many organizations that are built out at scale, the truth of the matter is, is just like on their operating system vulnerabilities, they're going to have tens of thousands, if not millions of individual items to deal with and no human can realistically prioritize those without some context around it. And that is where the data, kind of, management becomes really expensive.Corey: I hear you. Particularly the complaints about AWS Config, which many things like Control Tower setup for you. And on some level, it is a tax on using the cloud as the cloud should be used because it charges for evaluation of changes to your environment. So, if you're spinning things up all the time and then turning them down when they're not in use, that incurs a bunch of Config charges, whereas if you've treat it like a big dumb version of your data center where you just spin [unintelligible 00:30:13] things forever, your Config charge is nice and low. When you start seeing it entering the top ten of your spend on services, something is very wrong somewhere.Jeremy: Yeah. I would actually say, like, a good compromise in my mind would be that we should be included with something like business support. If you pay for support with AWS, why not include Config, or some level of Config, for all the accounts that are in scope for your production support? That would seem like a very reasonable compromise.Corey: For a lot of folks that have it enabled but they don't see any direct value from it either, so it's one of those things where not knowing how to turn it off becomes a tax on what you're doing, in some cases. In SCPs, but often with Control Tower don't allow you to do that. So, it's your training people who are learning this in their test environments to avoid it, but you want them to be using it at scale in an enterprise environment. So, I agree with you, there has to be a better way to deliver that value to customers. Because, yeah, this thing is now, you know, 3 or 4% of your cloud bill, it's not adding that much value, folks.Jeremy: Yeah, one thing I will say just on that point, and, like, it's a super small semantic nitpick that I have, I hate when people talk about security as a tax because I think it tends to kind of engender the wrong types of relationships to security. Because if you think about taxes, two things about them, I mean, one is that they're kind of prescribed for you, and so in some sense, this kind of Control Tower implementation is similar because, like you know, it's hard for you to turn off, et cetera, but on the other hand, like, you don't get to choose how that tax money is spent. And really, like, you get to set your security budget as an organization. Maybe this Control Tower Config scenario is a slight outlier on that side, but you know, there are ways to turn it off, et cetera.The other thing, though, is that, like, people tend to relate to tax, like, this thing that they really, really hate. It comes once a year, you should really do everything you can to minimize it and to, like, not spend any time on it or on getting it right. And in fact, like, there's a lot of people who kind of like to cheat on taxes, right? And so, like, you don't really want people to have that kind of mindset of, like, pay as little as possible, spend as little time as possible, and yes, let's cheat on it. Like, that's not how I hope people are addressing security in their cloud environments.Corey: I agree wholeheartedly, but if you have a service like Config, for example—that's what we're talking about—and it isn't adding value to you, and you just you don't know what it does, how it works, than it [unintelligible 00:32:37]—or more or less how to turn it off, then it does effectively become directly in line of a tax, regardless of how people want to view the principle of taxation. It's a—yeah, security should not be a tax. I agree with you wholeheartedly. The problem is, is it is—Jeremy: It should be an enabler.Corey: —unclea—yeah, the relationship between Config and security in many cases is fairly attenuated in a lot of people's minds.Jeremy: Yeah. I mean, I think if you don't have, kind of, ideas in mind for how you want to use it or consume it, or how you want to use it, let's say as an assessment against your own environment, then it's particularly vexing. So, if you don't know, like, “Hey, I'm going to use Config. I'm going to use Config for this set of rules. This is how I'm going to consume that data and how I'm going to then, like, pass the results on to people to make change in the organization,” then it's particularly useless.Corey: Yeah. I really want to thank you for taking the time to speak with me. If people want to learn more, where's the best place for them to find you?Jeremy: Easy, breezy. We are just firetail.io. That's ‘fire' like the, you know, flaming substance, and ‘tail' like the tail of an animal, not like a story. But yeah, just firetail.io.And if you come now, we've actually got, like, a white paper that we just put out around API security and kind of analyzing ten years of API-based data breaches and trying to understand what actually went wrong in most of those cases. And you're more than welcome to grab that off of our website. And if you have any questions, just reach out to me. I'm just jeremy@firetail.io.Corey: And we'll put links to all of that in the [show notes 00:34:03]. Thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it.Jeremy: My pleasure, Corey. Thanks so much for having me.Corey: Jeremy Snyder, founder and CEO at Firetail. I'm Cloud Economist Corey Quinn, and this is Screaming in the Cloud. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave a five-star review on your podcast platform of choice, whereas if you've hated this podcast, please leave a five-star review on your podcast platform of choice, along with an angry comment pointing out that listening to my nonsense is a tax on you going about your day.Corey: If your AWS bill keeps rising and your blood pressure is doing the same, then you need The Duckbill Group. We help companies fix their AWS bill by making it smaller and less horrifying. The Duckbill Group works for you, not AWS. We tailor recommendations to your business and we get to the point. Visit duckbillgroup.com to get started.

In this week's episode of "The Franchise Life" Podcast, Stacie is joined by the Chief Development Officer of Premium Service Brands, Danielle Wright.    As Danielle describes, “Premium Service Brands is a collection of nine home service brands that specialize in repairs and maintenance of the home.”  When asked what differentiates Premium Service Brands from other franchise umbrella brands, Danielle shares that its two-fold.   “We really acquire and bring on brands that complement each other so that we can help our owners diversify in what we call stack, add additional brands into their portfolio to leverage and work more with the consumer that they've already acquired with a different brand. Secondarily, we're really powered by Live Extraordinary. So what does that mean to us? Is that we lead with our values and our systems first, and we just happen to be in the home service category.” With a focus on professionalism, customer satisfaction, and growth, Premium Service Brands has become a sought-after franchise opportunity for those looking to enter the thriving home services industry.  Not only that, but most of their brands range from $80,000 to $150,000 as a total investment.     Popular Brand names under management include:   360 Painting: 360° Painting delivers professional painting services using premium materials and proven painting methods to ensure picture-perfect results. Prolift Garage Doors: ProLift Garage Doors is always working to provide the best garage door repair and installation services possible to clients Maid Right: Maid Right is a residential maid service that delivers non-toxic and eco-friendly, floor-to-ceiling residential cleaning services. And More!   And for those of you concerned about staffing, Premium Service Brands offers CareerPlug to all franchisees, which simplifies the hiring process and allows franchisees to recruit qualified candidates easily. Premium Service Brands also has national partnerships and a dedicated support team that assists in recruiting & hiring qualified team members.                                                                                                Interested in learning more about a franchising opportunity with Premium Service Brands? Reach out today to stacie@fusionfranchising.com or book a 15-min intro call to start your franchise ownership journey! Calendly - Stacie Shannon.   We match you up with the perfect franchise concepts to meet your needs and stay with you 100% throughout the process to assist with funding needs, legal needs, accountant reviews, etc. We are your franchise partners!   Follow us on social media:   YouTube:  The Franchise Life - YouTube   LinkedIn:  Stacie Shannon, MBA | LinkedIn   Instagram:  Franchising Consulting Palm Beach (@fusionfranchising) • Instagram photos and videos Facebook:  Fusion Franchising | Facebook

As investors attempt to find opportunities in an uncertain stock market, earnings disappointments and an ongoing debt ceiling debate loom overhead.----- Transcript -----Welcome to Thoughts on the Market. I'm Mike Wilson, Chief Investment Officer and Chief U.S. Equity Strategist for Morgan Stanley. Along with my colleagues bringing you a variety of perspectives, I'll be talking about the latest trends in the financial marketplace. It's Tuesday, May 16th, at 1 p.m. in New York. So let's get after it. Having spent the last few weeks on the road engaging with clients from around the world, I figured it would be useful to share some thoughts from our meetings and to touch on the most often asked questions, concerns and pushback to our views. First, conviction levels are low, given broadly elevated valuations and a challenging macro backdrop. While many individual longs and shorts have worked well in the context of a buoyant S&P 500, the most favorite trades have largely played out and clients are having trouble finding the next opportunity. Small cap and low quality stocks have underperformed and we continue to see crowding into mega-cap tech and consumer staples stocks as safe havens in a deteriorating growth environment.Second, there isn't much interest in the S&P 500 as either a long or a short anymore. Most clients we speak with have given up on the idea of a big breakdown of the index level. Conversely, there are few who think the S&P 500 can trade much above 4200, which has proven to be a key resistance since the October lows. What has changed is that the floor has been raised, with the large majority of investors thinking 3800 is now unlikely to be broken to the downside. In short, the consensus believes the bear market ended in October, at least for the high quality S&P 500 and NASDAQ. Third, there is little appetite to dive back into the areas of the market that have significantly underperformed like regional banks, small caps and energy. Other deep cyclicals are also out of favor due to either extended valuation and high earnings expectations In the case of industrials, and recession risk in the case of materials. Instead, most clients we spoke with remained comfortably long, large cap tech stocks, especially given the group's recent outperformance. While consumer staples and other defensives have outperformed strongly since March, there's less confidence this outperformance can continue. Our take remains the same. The market is speaking loudly under the surface, with its classic late cycle leadership and extreme narrowness, it is bracing for further macro and earnings disappointments. However, it is not yet pricing these outcomes at the index level. Such is the typical pattern exhibited by equity markets until clearer evidence of an economic recession arrives, or the risks of one are fully extinguished. With our economist forecasting close to 0% growth this year for real GDP and just modest growth next year, valuations at full levels and several other risks in front of us, we suspect 4200 will hold to the upside as most clients suggest. However, we continue to hold a more bearish tactical view than most clients in terms of the downside risk given our earnings forecast. The majority of our fundamental debate with clients has been over earnings. More specifically, there is broad pushback to our view that margins have not yet bottomed. In addition, many clients do not think revenue growth can fall towards zero or go negative given the still elevated inflation across the economy. Our take is that while many companies have taken decisive cost action, including layoffs, they have not yet cut cost nearly enough for a zero-to-negative revenue growth backdrop. But the odds of such an outcome increasing, in our view, we find it notable that many investors are more sanguine today on the earnings backdrop than they were five months ago. Meanwhile, many clients are worried about the debt ceiling. Most believe it will get resolved, but not without some near-term volatility. However, the discussion has evolved, with many clients framing this event as a lose-lose for markets. Assuming the debt ceiling is not resolved before the Treasury runs out of money, market volatility is likely to pick up meaningfully. Conversely, if the debt ceiling is lifted before the Treasury runs out of money, it will likely come with some concessions on the spending front, which could be a headwind for growth. Secondarily, such an outcome will lead to significant, pent up issuance from the Treasury to pay its bills and rebuild its reserves. This issuance from Treasury, could approach $1 trillion in the six months immediately after the ceiling is lifted, and potentially present a materially tightening to liquidity that could tip the S&P 500 back to the downside. To summarize, clients are less bearish on earnings than we are, although most are still fundamentally cautious on growth in the economic backdrop. Given the resilience in the large cap indices and leadership from perennially favored companies this year, many investors are now convicted that the equity market can look through a mild economic or earnings recession at this point. We think this is a very challenging tactical setup should growth or liquidity deteriorate as we expect over the next few weeks and months. We maintain our well below consensus earnings estimates for this year and believe narrow breadth and defensive leadership support our view that this bear market is yet to be completed, especially at the index level. Defensively oriented companies with a focus on operational efficiency should continue to outperform, especially if they exhibit true pricing power. Thanks for listening. If you enjoy Thoughts on the Market, please take a moment to rate the review us on the Apple Podcasts app. It helps more people to find the show.

In this episode, Edmund Gröpl, a retired engineer, discovers how life is often circular. He shares his in-depth knowledge of Zettelkasten (card file in German) and how he links sketchnotes using Obsidian. Edmund shares how he is integrating Zettlekasten and sketchnotes in a new book.Sponsored by ConceptsThis episode of the Sketchnote Army Podcast is brought to you by Concepts, a perfect tool for sketchnoting, available on iOS, Windows, and Android.Concepts' vector-based drawing feature gives you the power to adjust your drawings — any time you like. You can nudge the curve of a line, swap out one brush for another, or change stroke thickness and color at any stage of your drawing — saving hours and hours of rework.Vectors provide clean, crisp, high-resolution output for your sketchnotes at any size you need — large or small. Never worry about fuzzy sketchnotes again.Concepts is a powerful, flexible tool that's ideal for sketchnoting.SEARCH “Concepts” in your favorite app store to give it a try.Running OrderIntroWelcomeWho is Edmund?Origin StoryEdmund's current workSponsor: ConceptsTipsToolsWhere to find EdmundOutroLinksAmazon affiliate links support the Sketchnote Army Podcast.Edmund on LinkedinEdmund on InstagramEdmund on TwitterEdmund's eBookLinktreeBook: Zettelkasten by Niklas LuhmannHow To Take Smart NotesThe Back of the Napkin by Dan RoanWriting Useful Books by Rob FitzpatrickThe Sketchnote Handbook by Mike RohdeThe Sketchnote Army PodcastToolsAmazon affiliate links support the Sketchnote Army Podcast.Neuland markersStaedtler markersiPad ProApple PencilConceptsMiroObsidianPowerBITipsBenefit from self-organized learning groups.Attend a LernOS sketchnoting circle.Zettelkasten with Obsidian is your second brain for sketchnoting.Take useful notes!CreditsProducer: Alec PulianasTheme music: Jon SchiedermayerShownotes and transcripts: Esther OdoroSubscribe to the Sketchnote Army PodcastYou can subscribe to the podcast through iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube or your favorite podcast listening source.Support the PodcastTo support the creation, production and hosting of the Sketchnote Army Podcast, buy one of Mike Rohde's bestselling books. Use code ROHDE40 at Peachpit.com for 40% off!Episode TranscriptMike Rohde: Hey everyone, it's Mike, and I'm here with my friend Edmund Gropl. Edmund, how are you?Edmund Gropl: Hello, Mike. Nice to see you. And I put one sentence on paper. Thank you so much for having me.MR: You're so welcome. I'm glad to have you. I'm excited because I know that you're really into this intersection between Zettelkasten and sketch notes. I'm really curious to hear in the section where we talk about current projects, where you're at with that. Because I think one of the things that I struggle with is I produce lots of sketch notes, but the challenge I find is organizing them in a logical way.I think your episode, your interview with us may be really helpful for me to think about how do I do that in a good way. I've got some fits and starts. I'm really personally looking forward to learning and getting some ideas from you. Before we get to that, let's start first with who you are and what you do.EG: Hello, my name is Edmund. I'm here from Germany, living in the Frankfurt area. To make it short, I'm a husband, I'm a father, and I'm a grandfather.MR: Congratulations.EG: Thank you. Thank you very much. Husband since 41 years, father then 33 years, and a grandfather since 10 months.MR: Wow.EG: Both three are really exciting.MR: Well, then congratulations to you for setting an example for us for consistency and reliability, and loyalty. It's always good to see those qualities in people because we need that. We need those models and examples to follow. Talk to us a little bit about, you mentioned to me that you were an engineer. I don't know much more about that. Why don't you talk a little bit about your time as an engineer and your specialty and what was interesting to you in the work that you did?EG: If you're in business, it's very important to talk about your profession, about being an engineer. Since two years, I'm retired, and therefore I have a lot of time and I have my head free thinking for my own, not for the company, not for the customers. It's exciting, what is changing. Is it the same as I did years ago as an engineer, or is there's some new stuff?What I didn't expect that it's a really new phase in life, redefining yourself, and you are not a retired engineer. You are your person as your own. If I look at my hobbies, I love swimming, climbing, drawing, going outside, and so, and these are my hobbies. and it's all the stuff I mostly liked when I was a child.MR: Interesting.EG: Yes. It was climbing on trees. it was playing outside, it was swimming in the gym with my parents, it was drawing, not mathematics, and all the other stuff which came important to me afterwards. That's back to the roots and life seems to be a little bit like a mirror to see what was at the beginning comes back at the end.MR: Rediscovering childhood in a way.EG: Yeah. I didn't read it in a book, and it was not a plan. I had no idea what I would do as a retired engineer, but that was it. In the last years, I was working for a big company as a data scientist. I came here from Darmstadt near Frankfurt, and here it was the time when I came as a young man studying software and systems engineering.Therefore, my head is all full with these engineering tools and concepts and methods and all this way of thinking. Sketchnoting was for me, very surprising to get in contact with all the other guys worldwide. Artists, illustrators' facilitators, and so on and so on. It was really an enrichment of my life to have contact with different people with different professions and so on.That's in short to say about my life. It was one year ago. Do you remember, Mike? It was in March last year. There was a session from you in the internet about sketchnoting, in March 3rd or so?MR: Interesting. It's not one that comes to mind.EG: Eventbrite was the platform where you announced it.MR: It must have been interesting. That must have been—oh, that's a good question. We'll have to look and see. On the top of my head, I don't remember. The reason is there's been so many events that I've been doing that it's not surprising that I don't remember what it was.EG: I was really happy that I could watch your presentation about sketchnoting, about drawing, and all this stuff. Real life, it was Mike, personally. It was not a book, it was you in person. There were a lot of visitors in your presentation. There was this chat by, near all these pictures, and there was one of the participants from New York City. Her name was—there was only a short form, Caroline New York City and she posted Zettelkasten and Sonke Ahrens.I thought, okay, it was a session for Mike Rohde, it's about sketchnoting, there's some new stuff about sketchnoting. I have a whole bunch of literature about sketchnoting. I think all the books of all sketchnoters worldwide in different languages are on my bookshelf. I said, okay, Zettelkasten, it must be amazing. I bought this book, let me show you. It's a Kindle book, "How to Take Smart Notes."MR: Interesting.EG: Yes. Sketchnotes, smart notes, smart sketch notes. I started reading, and I was disappointed.MR: It was all text.EG: Yes. It's only text. The whole book is full of text. No sketchnotes at all.MR: Interesting.EG: And it was about note-taking. Then this boring stuff at the beginning, because only text, I said, okay, if it's not said what is the best way for note-taking, and I translate it in what is the best way for sketchnote taking or taking sketchnotes. I read all this book about note-taking with a sketchnote metaphor in mind, and that was an amazing book.This book from Sonke Ahrens it's not written from an engineer or from a writer, it's a German sociologist as well as this Niklas Luhmann. Let me say in short, who invented this Zettlekasten method.Sonke Ahrens explained it in his own language, and it's an amazing stuff. It's worth reading twice or three times this book. It's about 250 pages. What I learned reading one book about sketchnoting is not okay. I read the book, I'm now a sketchnoter.It needs a lot of practice. With the note-taking, it's the same as taking sketchnotes, it needs a lot of practice, but you need to know a lot of principles behind, and I say hidden principles. In the first moment, you couldn't see these principles.Mike, I looked at your book first. It was amazing, the sketchnotes, the ideas, but it needs maybe one or two years, I came back to your book and say, okay, now I understand it. You have no chance to understand it from the beginning. With note-taking, it's nearly the same.That is my hobby since one year. Since your online session about sketchnoting. To mix it a little bit up to say, okay, that's Sonke Ahrens and that's the Mike Rohde, put it together and that's my hobby since nearly one year. 362 days is my Zettlekasten hobby.MR: I had no idea that a workshop that I was teaching had sparked you along this path. That's really exciting to hear. That's pretty cool.I know we're gonna talk more about what Zettelkasten is, how you've overlapped it or integrated it with sketchnoting, but I think I wanna go back. We've gone back one year to last March.Now, let's go back to when you were a kid, and as you grew up in school and as you went to university, and as you worked in business as an engineer. I'm really curious, what were the moments in time, because you talked about when you were a kid, you liked drawing and now here you are again at the end drawing again in retirement years.What was it that kept drawing alive? Or maybe it didn't stay alive and it had to be resurrected later. Talk about your path from a little boy to now. What were those key moments that brought you to where you are now?EG: It's not drawing as a child, as a senior citizen, or so. It's at school first. I loved drawing most. Then they said, "Drawing is for small children. You are growing up and the really intelligent and clever ones, they can write and they can calculate. Drawing is only for the small ones."But that was at the beginning of the school, but in mathematics, there are also some specialties where you can draw with a pencil, with a ruler, with a circle. It's not freehand drawing, but it's visual. I learned in mathematics also in physics, that all the visual stuff was for me, easy to understand.For example, I'm really good in mathematics and physics and chemistry, for example. There was a lot of stuff I had to learn by heart that was not my idea. The visualization of elements, it was a little bit boring. Mathematics and physics was much more exciting too. In physics, to draw the experiments from the teacher on the sheet of paper and to say, okay, that's the motor, that's the battery and have it with symbols and the wires you can draw.This physical stuff was the way I learned. That was also a reason for becoming an engineer. Engineering is also stuff with drawings there. There are concepts, there are diagrams, all this visual stuff, and that helps a lot. Coming in my professional life, after I was a systems engineer from university, I had to communicate with others, with the colleagues, with my boss, with the customers.Then my drawings were these engineer drawings. I would not like to explain it too much in words. I will draw this system. We want to sell you this system that solves your problem, and so on. Or this process diagrams, flow diagrams and all this stuff. That was all visual. Therefore, I'm sure there are different styles of thinking maybe we are all born with. If you're more visual thinker, it's easier to become an engineer or an architect, and it's easier than to become a lawyer or something like this.MR: I know the physicist that I've spoken with Rob Dimeo and others who talk about physics is really dependent on visuals, and so, they find it a real natural companion to sketchnoting, which is pretty interesting that you mentioned it as well.EG: That's the side when I came to sketchnoting—and let me show you one book, I think one of my first sketch noting book was from Dan Roam.MR: "The Back of the Napkin." Yep. Great book.EG: It was a lot about the concepts itself. And I understand the concepts with a mind of an engineer, but years later, after Dan Roam, that was your book, I had a sketchnoting workshop over five days learning sketchnoting from a guy from Berlin, if I remember, Dick Hanaman.MR: Dick Hanaman. Okay.EG: Dick Hanaman from Berlin, he's giving sketchnoting workshops.MR: Great.EG: That was one of the books he recommended. With this book and with this workshop, I learned the stuff behind it, what does it mean to draw a line in this or in this way, why are there thicker and thinner lines, how to focus the attention on a special part of the drawing, and that was not in this book. Then came the book of Mike Rohde. I was happy to understand after years what drawing really means. I was working for a big company with more than 200,000 employees.MR: Oh, wow.EG: There's an internal platform or an internal community of self-organized learning. If you have some interesting stuff in engineering, in whatever, in the internet, you can post that you will held a session via Zoom or a special tool to show others, oh, there's interesting stuff for you about databases, proclaiming, and so on. And I offered Sketchnoting sessions, and it was two weeks after my first sketchnoting workshop and I held this session with 400 colleagues.MR: No pressure. Edmund, no pressure.EG: It was a feeling like flying in the air.MR: Wow.EG: I was able to draw a sticky man and write my name on paper. It was not only one session, it was repeatable. Week after week. That was really a nice feeling to say, oh, that's the right direction, and therefore I banned all my PowerPoint from my presentations, used the flip chart with the Neuland markers. It is the only ones I can use because I can use them for drawing and for writing. If the paper is white, the pen is black. What we had in the company before was you can't use this stuff. I always had my own Neuland markers with me.MR: Me too.EG: And the corporate material or markers most times they were old, two or three years old.MR: Dry.EG: Dry. You have to throw them away. That was it all with Neuland. Also, as an engineer, drawing on a whiteboard, it was the same with the dry markers years before, but with the Neuland markers for the whiteboard, I was the king. If we had a meeting, blah, blah, blah, this and this. Then Edmund uses his Neuland marker, went to the whiteboard, and explained how it works.MR: What we just talk about, Edmund would visualize it for you.EG: Yeah. It was amazing. It was all I think a little bit by excellent. It was not planned in my career.MR: Organic, maybe a good way to describe it, which is always good because you follow it because it's interesting. You didn't follow it because somebody told you to, or you had to because of your job. You did it because you were interested and you came to love it, it seems like.EG: Most of the stuff by accident, and what was the term I got from the internet? Serendipity. To be open to see things you wouldn't expect. As I told you, it was the same with Zettelkasten. It was, you were sketchnoting session in the internet.MR: That's funny.EG: The girl from New York said, Zettlekasten and Sonke Ahrens. Really cool stuff.MR: You just never know what's going to send you in the new direction.EG: Yeah.MR: Which is great. That's a great thing about life, right, if you're open to it. Which I would argue that people that stay in the sketch note community are very open and interested and curious people, I think by nature. Probably something else you share in common when you go to an event with other sketch noters, everybody's curious and loves to learn and loves to share. Those combination of things seem consistent to me. That makes a great community because there's just endless things you can learn about and endless things to do, which is exciting.EG: It's really my experience learning and talking with sketch noters, it's just another family. It's not the engineering style. It's another mindset. And I love it. They are from different professions. That's a big difference to my typical work as an engineer or as a data scientist.MR: You also have the international component, so not only are they from different walks of life and different interests, but they're also from different countries. Even then you have another perspective change, right? Even in countries in Europe as well as the United States and around the world, everyone has a little bit different view on things so you can learn some new things from those people from other places. At least that's what I've experienced. My life is so much richer because of the community for sure.EG: In this community, I really love this sharing mindset and this lifelong learning. And being curious, there's new stuff. There's a new app for drawing, could you please tell me a little bit about it? For these digital tools, they freely give away a digital brush set.MR: Right. Yeah, it's a great community, and we're glad you're part of it. Thank you for your contributions for sure. Speaking of contributions, I'd like to hear a little bit more about Zettelkasten, how it integrates or overlaps with sketchnoting.Probably, the best place to be would be to give us some history. Where did the term Zettelkasten—it seems to me like a German word from what I've done. Maybe take it from there and give us a backstory. Obviously, we know how you came across it. How do you then apply the Zettelkasten idea with sketchnoting?EG: You are right. Zettlekasten is a German word, and I think if you translate it right, it's a slip box. Typically, a slip box is a wooden box, small ones with a lot of note cards. This German, this Niklas Luhmann, this professor from Germany, a sociologist from Germany from the last century. He had a wooden Zettleksten with about 90,000 notes he'd taken in his life.MR: Wow. He must have had more than one box for that.EG: Yeah. It's a small format, and there's only written down his idea he got while reading a book while reading an article. Not reading in the internet. That wasn't invented at that time. When he was ready with creating this note card, he put it in a Zettelkasten.MR: A slip box. Yep.EG: In the slip box, yes. But you would say, okay, what's the way coming back to this Zettel or to this note card some days, weeks, or months or years later? That was the system we all know if you're familiar with the internet, he put a number on top of his note card, an identificater, an ID. It was written the date and the time when he created this note. And whenever he put some ideas on paper, he linked this note with another ID of another note card.For example, if you would say ideas not art, and put it only here on this note card, then he should put a link to the note card of Mike Rohde, with a Mike Rohde Id and maybe a must be an ID from this book.MR: Got it.EG: Then he put it in his Zettelkasten. Later on, if he was working on an idea, he want to write an article, or was writing a book yet idea, okay, there are some note cards. They're important for this stuff. I got them from my Zettelkasten. With these two or three cards, there are a lot of connections to the other note cards in the Zettelkasten.MR: Then you pull those note cards, right?EG: He put this on his desk, rearrange it a little bit.MR: Card sorting. Yeah.EG: Card sorting and say, okay, all the ideas are on the table. It's an easy stuff for writing. He was never sitting with a blank sheet of paper. Always starts with his notes. Note cards he captured days, months, or years ago. Niklas Luhman, it is said he was very productive in his life. I'm not good in remembering numbers, about 400 articles and 90 books. It's unbelievable for a lifetime.MR: Wow. The thing that makes me wonder is there must have been some kind of index. When you do the ID on the card, you must have to also—I think about the bullet journal. When you put entries into your book, you're supposed to add that to the index so that you can find it later.Is there an index component to this as well? Or do you have to just rifle through your slips? How would you know by the ID whether it's the thing you need, you'd almost need some organizing structure where you would say things about this are these numbers and things about that, or something. Tell me about that.EG: You have different types of notes in your Zettelkasten. The main part of the Zettelkasten are so-called permanent notes. Let me say there's a phrase to call them atomic notes because on one Zettel, there's only one idea. There's not an article or a story. One idea. Okay. And there are other types of notes. For example, structure notes and structure notes says, okay, that's my topic. That's about—MR: Gardening. Let's say.EG: It's about gardening. On this structure notes, you say in gardening, you need tools plants and whatever, soil and you put a list of important stuff for gardening. What are the 10 most important tools for gardening? Put it on this paper. And link it with a note card you already have in your Zettelkasten.MR: Got it. There is some manual, identification and crosslinking and such that you would do. That makes sense.EG: In book writing, it's an index. This structure notes are indexes and there are table of content. You have some structures like the structures in a mind map. In outlining of an article, for example, you have some main ideas, some sub ideas, and so. These structures are on special cards, but on the structure notes, they are only structure information, no content. The ideas are on separate permanent notes, and you have the structure notes.MR: In the physical box of cards, box of slips, I would assume, maybe in the back is where all the content notes are or the idea notes. And maybe in the front is where the indexes and structure notes live. You would maybe first go to the front part of the box to look for topics and say, "Okay, I need card number, this, and card number that and this."And based on that, then you'd go in the back and pull those because they would be in some order, then you could pull 'em all out and then lay them out and do what you will, and then return it all back to the box, assuming you didn't add some notes. If you added notes, then those would go in. Indexes would be updated and the new slips would be put maybe in the back, I suppose.EG: Yeah. These are the main types of notes. How to create the note, if I'm reading a book and I'm note-taking, I use my Zettels, and if there's important information on page 56, I put my idea with this important idea from the book on the literature note card. Literature note card only means it's the content I read in the book with my own words. It has an unique identifier, and with a digital tool, it would be a title.You don't need these numbers anymore. From a hindsight, you have to order and to sort them ad you have no search function. Today, you only have the title, you have the content in your own words, and you have a link to the source. Literature note—MR: Easily do with these tools that exist now, right? Linking is easier.EG: Yes, the only must with the literature note is to have a backlink to the source itself.MR: The book itself and the page number itself.EG: The book also to the author. And the literature note is not a permanent note. Maybe on the same day or little bit later, you will take you a literature note, look at it and say, "Okay, are there any connections in my mind, which may be important?"Maybe it's a phrase from your book, Mike to focus attention in your sketch note. And you said, okay, there's a connection to attention, and there are a lot of note cards, they are connected to attention. You put this on your—if you are started to link your literature note with other already existing permanent notes, then you transform this literature note to a permanent note. And the literature note vanish.MR: Doesn't need to be kept yet.EG: Yeah. With a linking to other notes, you have two possibilities. One is the link, like a hyperlink in the internet and the other possibility to link to other concepts, ideas, or whatever is tagging as you do it in Instagram, in Twitter, and—.MR: The hashtag.EG: —whatever. It's all the stuff we already know, but did it on paper. We are really lucky to have the computers and you have modern tools for this idea of note-taking. My favorite tool is called Obsidian. It's one of the favorite tools from a lot of writers. Starting with a steep curve in, if you ask at Google trends about Obsidian, it's a very slow line and rising high in the last month or years.It's a really great community. It's a little bit this sharing style, like the sketch noters. If you are in an Obsidian community with other guys using this tool and using the Zettelkasten method, and you ask a question, you are sure there's an answer within a few minutes. They really help each other. What is behind as I said to you in the beginning using sketchnoting seems to be easy, but you need a lot of experience.MR: It's a learning curve. Yeah, for sure.EG: It's not so steep learning curve. The same is with notetaking. It seems to be easy, as I told you, only a few types of notes. Use it on paper or use it on the PC with Obsidian tool, but it's really learning, learning, learning. In my professional life, most part, I need a lot of time in my business for note taking, with sketch notes without sketch notes.What, for me, was fascinating. If you have a note card, you can draw on it. There's no need. Like Niklas Luhmann, I think he wasn't a visual thinker. I do not know him personally, but only writing text or note cards. He couldn't have read your book in this time.MR: Yeah. Yeah.EG: There was no drawing at all. Unbelievable. But today, I think use a note card, put your drawings on it, and you have a mixture of sketch noting and note-taking with a Zettelkasten method integrated in the Obsidian tool.MR: Tell us a little bit how you do that, because that's the part where—I've got a text editing tool. I use Ulysses for writing. It can do some linking, but it's not optimized like Obsidian is, which I've considered, but for now, it's been great for writing. I use folders and structures.It also does tagging, so I could do some of it, but I'm really curious to see like bringing in the visuals into Obsidian. I would guess that you could attach images. You could do a drawing, take a photo and attach it to one of these cards and then use your linking and tagging to make sense of how it fits in the greater whole. Talk to us a little bit about how you make that work.EG: It's a little bit like linking a drawing to a note card. It's like building a webpage, there's the written stuff, and then there's a link to a jpeg or PNG or whatever file. For me, that's the same for drawing. I typically us my iPad with the Concepts app. I can export it in this—MR: It's an image.EG: Yeah. It's an image at the special formats. Then they are linked in the Zettelkasten tool. I can reuse. Also, it's only a link to the image. There's one place, they are all images. It's big box with thousands of images. And there's one link to one note. If I use the same image in another note, there's only a link to this image.MR: One link. Got it.EG: One link and one—you say you have a tool using folders.MR: Right.EG: I was trained my whole life working with folders. I'm not sure if it's a German invention to put all stuff in folders. I had these folders before the PC was invented. In the living room, wherever you look, there were folders with different Zettels here. And it was a nice feeling putting all the stuff in the folders. It looks pretty. When I had the idea, coming back to an idea, which was the right folder, where did I put it in? and I lost a lot of time my life for searching.MR: Searching for things.EG: The most confusing thing was this folder structure with sub-folders and sub-sub-folders. It was this tree-like structure, and you never which branch and which leaf and couldn't find it. What was really hard for me, learning the Zettelkasten method there, I would say no folders. All these permanent notes are in one folder. That's a crazy feeling. If you do it at the beginning and you'll say, okay are there the right links? Do I have a link to the source? Do I have a link to the author?And then you put it in this box, in this permanent note box, and it vanishes, and it's gone. From your life, you have no experience, is there a chance to get it back? Although I knew it's easy to get it back. There's a perfect search function, full text searching in this tool. You can look at the links. You have a craft view. You have a crafted representation of this network. You can filter this craft view, and it's really easy with all these tools coming back to an idea. But using folders the whole life—MR: It's very comfortingEG: It's a brainwash to put something in this black hole.MR: Like putting it in the sea.EG: I will never get it back.MR: Interesting. Well, I suppose, if I were to think of the one thing that's close to folders in this method would be tagging. You could have multiple tags. In a way, you're marking it in a folder, but it can be in more than one folder. That's the beauty of tagging where with a folder, there's only one, and if you can't find that folder, it's lost.I guess now with tools like Ulysses as an example, I can do searches and find things. Ideally, and probably the way I would go about it is probably use tagging to start tagging. Then I guess the challenge around tagging that I've seen in my lifetime is being consistent with tagging. Because maybe one tag is icon and then you accidentally say icons and now you have two tags.So, forming a manageable set of tags is probably a challenge because if the tags get out of control, then you could potentially have more processing stuff. You probably have to be disciplined about tagging, I suppose. To have a pretty structured tagging organization otherwise could get outta control, just like folders could.EG: It's really important point you talked about, this tagging and what you need at most at the beginning of working with a Zettelkasten, to have some kind of architecture for your text. What is important, what needs to be tagged in which way and not to have an idea of all the text from A to Z, but you have this taking architecture.For example, I have texts about hashtag type. And in Obsidian you have not only one level of tagging, but two levels of tagging. You can say hashtag type slash note slash sketchnote.MR: So, modify in a way.EG: Slash book. It's not about the content of the note, but it's more a little bit like metadata. If you come back, for example, oh I'm not sure what it was, but it was from a book, and then I could use this hashtag-type book. And then I have a list of books, and then I say, okay, but only the last two weeks. Then the list is very short and say, "Okay, that it was."You can find things and have no—you wouldn't be able to have a prompt, a search phrase. In Google, for example, you need some phrases to find the stuff. With your tagging architecture, you can search for stuff where you have forgotten the phrase.MR: So, probably tags for someone who, like you and me, have been trained to use folders for our whole lives, and that's a comfort for us. Probably the bridging mechanism to Zettelkasten might be tagging and then linking as well. Because in a way, tagging becomes like your representation of what the folder means. It's a metadata. It's the thing that defines the category.EG: In my architecture, I have for example, this taking of types, and as a process engineer, one of my jobs in the past, there was input, computation, and output. Then I have the tech input, and I can say it's from the internet, it's from the book, it's from YouTube. Sometimes, I only have an idea where it comes from. And other texts are about output to say, okay, I put it to Twitter, to LinkedIn, to Instagram or whatever. That's not about the content of the note, but only where it comes from, where it goes to.In this architecture, there several metadata sets I can extend at the end. The list of output, it's infinity to extend it, but this main structure it's very important to have it at the beginning, but when you have hundreds or thousands of notes and you have to change all this text, it's not so much fun.In Obsidian, there's a plugin. There's a plugin, if you say icon or icons, you can say, please change all text icons to icon, and that's makes it easy.MR: Yeah. Interesting. Is there so you think the Sonke Ahren's book is a good place for someone to start who's maybe interested. Are there other resources you might recommend? Are there classes or YouTube videos or something that might be helpful to get people started on this? Secondarily, once they've established the base, is that a Zettelkasten structure then is there reference for how to integrate visuals into it?Because it sounds like a lot of what I've seen is more text oriented, like linking and writing and so forth, it's all text, and there's not so much emphasis on integrating images. I think for sketch and visual thinkers, having that additional information would be useful. In addition, like once you set up the structure, then how do we integrate images into it would be helpful.Some of the things you've hinted at like there's a big folder that has all the images in it, and then you just link to it. And I suppose that's part of the whole box, right? So, you have one folder that's got all the text and it's all linked together, and then one box with images or something, and then you link them together.EG: I have one folder. The folder is called visuals. They're all my images. I have a folder, as I said, a permanent notes. They're all this permanent notes stuff. Other stuff, for example, I collect a lot of PDF files. Maybe I have books in PDF format or table of content from a book I have on paper in PDF, and all this stuff of value in my assets folder and I can link them easily.MR: All between each other.EG: Some of the sketch notes I have in PDF formats from others.MR: I see.EG: Assets for example, are the sketch notes from others I collected as an example, as a source of inspiration. In the visuals, I have these drawings from myself. As Niklas Luhmann did writing it down with your own words, it's drawing with your own pencil.MR: Yeah, same thing. Just a visual interpretation.EG: There's no difference. Therefore, the only difficulty with this book of Sonke Ahren, believe me, there are no pictures.MR: Yeah. Exactly.EG: Most of the sketch noters can draw, and therefore, it should be possible.MR: Now, I know that you offer, as part of your show notes that you pre-sent to me, there's something about an e-book. Is the e-book address using Zettelkasten for visuals and sketch notes? Is that what the book is about?EG: Yes. My idea was using the Mike Rohde book and using the book from Sonke Ahrens, put it together, but not to repeat it. But to say, what does it mean if you put it together? I give a lot of hints and advices how to structure the folders, how to use the architecture for the tagging.MR: That sounds like exactly—EG: That's more important. If it's more, oh, sketchnoting, then there's a link maybe to your book or maybe a link to a YouTube video. All the details are links to the internet, to some Zettelkasten videos or to sketchnote videos, or other material. And it's one overview. It's a book, would say a structure note with a lot of sketch notes and with links to all this stuff you need to put together.MR: Got it.EG: It's a book full of references.MR: So basically, if someone is listening to this and getting excited about the idea of, say, picking up Obsidian, which by the way is free for personal use, sets up Zettelkasten so that they can manage their sketch notes. That this would be the next step would be to get the book that you've created in order to structure it and start working with it and integrating it. Would that be the right way to think about it?EG: And the idea of my book is not writing it and publishing it in two or three years. I'm fascinated from this idea learning in public and publishing all the stuff. If I'm sitting here at the weekend writing a chapter in this book, then it's published in a pre-published version. I published already 15 versions. Most, it's one more chapter, some more links, and so on. It's growing and growing. What is really nice, the sketch noters and the Zettelkasten community, they all help me writing this book.MR: Oh, great.EG: I don't understand this sketch note. What do you mean with a sentence? I got feedback and okay, it's not printed this book. It's a PDF. It's on GitHub. It's freely available and all this feedback, there's an update and I can improve it. I earned my money as an IT engineer with HR projects. And we put running software to a customer a few days after he agreed with us the contract, and we were improving and improving. Today, it's possible also with books.MR: It's a mindset. It's a living book in a lot of ways. It's almost like software documentation, right? As you build the tool, like pieces are removed and replaced or depreciated, or things or features are added. In software, you have to document this stuff so that it's tracked, and you can go back in time and look at the old version and see, oh, that's right. We had that feature, and because of this and that, we removed it. It's no longer in the documentation.I suppose, in this case, you're doing more adding, but I suspect at some point maybe something would disappear or whatever, and you might have to replace it or something. Like a link, say somebody website in five years goes away, you might have to find a new link to that or something.EG: With Zettelkasten, I started in March '22, with your even bright workshop.MR: That's funny.EG: And then I started writing the book because the idea is not to take notes and to put all these Zettels, as I said in this box. It's a black hole. What do you need? That's very important for all who want to start with the Zettelkasten. You need the goal. What do you want to do with all these ideas in this box?MR: Right. How's it gonna be applied?EG: That's not the final destination. That's an asset. As a proof of concept, I have to write a book. Otherwise, all these ideas would vanish in this Zettelkasten box. And they're beautifully linked, nicely teched, but it doesn't make any sense. What I found in the internet, I think nearly as great as the sketch noting book from Mike Rohde, as great as Sonke Ahrens Zettelkasten it's about "Writing Useful Books." It's from Rob Fitzpatrick. You see, it's full of highlighted text, every page full of nuggets.Yes, yes, yes, the idea that non-fiction books are problem-solving books. You need to know the problems of your potential readers and to show them on the first page, which problem are you looking at, and how you can help them. And if you read the table of contents, there are a lot of promises from the author, how he could help you to solve your problem. And then, this as very short in writing, as you see, it's a small book.MR: Yeah. It's quite thin.EG: Quite thin, but full of value. Other books 500, 600 pages. I stopped in the middle of the book. I had no time in life to read it to the end. And that's the third book in my project, using the contents here of these right useful books to get the Zettels out of the Zettelkasten to create project notes, to create consistent chapters and sub-chapters, and to deliver result from all this syncing behind.MR: I think the other challenge too, that it's important to have a purpose would be if you just did the Zettlekasten just to do it without a purpose in mind, it would just go into an ocean. I think eventually your motivation to maintain it because it takes work to do the linking and all this, even if you get into a rhythm, it takes work. Just like sketchnoting, it takes more work to do sketch notes 'cause you have to really think about it and you're analyzing. So, it takes effort.Unless you have a purpose for it, eventually you're gonna, "Uh, I don't want to put a link, I'm tired, I don't wanna write a link, or I don't wanna do a tag." Then the next thing you know, then you're not adding thing. You know what I mean? It's like, would degrade ‘cause you didn't have a purpose for it.By having a purpose, like in your case, writing a book, it meant that you had something that you were doing. And now everything that goes into your Zettelkasten is likely for future additions of the book, or maybe now some new project that the Zettelkasten serves a purpose for, I would guess.EG: As a process engineer, in my Zettelkasten, I measure the input, I measure the output, I can measure the productivity, the relation between output and input, and I can see is it working. Is the process working? Are there some bottlenecks in the Zettelkasten? What takes the most of my valuable time? Is there connection between the idea at the input to the book at the output? Is it a little bit complicated or is it directly connected? How long does it take to get one idea in and one idea out? If I take this book, it's from 2012. If I would use one concept to improve my output, that 10 years between your idea, your shared to my idea, I shared.MR: The application.EG: Yes. And my idea is to shorten it a little bit. Reading a book, reading another book, connected and having an output and an output of value to solve a problem of my readers. That's more than note taking.MR: It's another level up.EG: It's a philosophy that connects really the organizational part with the Zettelkasten, the visual part with the sketch notes and the value part from "Creating Useful Books" from Rob Fitzpatrick.MR: Overlap of three things.EG: Combining three things and say, okay. That's for me, it makes sense. It's not only a machine, I'm focused on the wheels, didn't have a look at the motor, but I want tto build this car, and it's really working. You can use it.MR: Well, this is great. Thank you, Edmund. And you know, if you've been listening to this discussion, you're getting ideas in the end of the show, of course, have contact information for Edmund so you can reach out directly, but we'll also have links to his book and the other books that he's mentioned so you can do your own work and download obsidian and those kind of things, and try it out. I think this has been very helpful. I'm hoping that it will inspire some people to maybe organize their sketch notes using this method. That would be great.EG: I hope it solves one or another problem from all these guys taking notes their whole life, being a student, being a professional. And so, take their notes, but having ideas to improve this process. Taking sketch notes, not only the written stuff. Remember the old stuff, finding back to old ideas, combining with news, and having the chance to give the ideas a chance. They can meet in a Zettelkasten although they came from very different sources.MR: Right. The opportunities are pretty great there. Well, this has been interesting. Let's shift a little bit now. We'll talk a little bit about tools now. Let's start with analog tools and then we'll talk about digital tools. You've hinted at some of these things already, but let's go more in detail. Starting with analogEG: I already mentioned it I only used this Neuland and the reasons I gave you.MR: They're all there.EG: The only Markers, they really work in a professional context. That are my fine liners on paper. Is it?MR: Yeah. The little guys. Yes. Staedtler,EG: It's Staedtler. I think it's from Germany, but it's a way. The Neuland markers they also sell the Staedtler stuff.MR: Yes.EG: It's the same is only a branded Neuland on it. But it's the same. Perfect quality for me. That was my life before I got an iPad.MR: Tell us about how the iPad changed you. You mentioned that you've made a shift from one application to another. I'd love to hear not only what those two tools were, but then the rationale for switching and what led you to the new tool that you're using now.EG: With my iPad, I looked at the internet and to all the sketch notes and they told me there's only one tool you can use, it's Procreate. I had a lot of experience with Photoshop in the past, and it was not so difficult to understand how to use the Procreate tool. But I struggled a little bit with my canvas. Is it designed for a letter format or for a large poster? It is pixel-based the Procreate and enlarging your drawing means there is all this—MR: The jackety edges.EG: Yeah. It's not so nice. The Procreate, if you say, okay, I'm not sure which format is the best, I plan for the highest resolution and can reduce it if I need. But then the fights were getting bigger and bigger. With a Concept app, it's a vector-based format. I can resize as I like it. At the beginning, at the end, and the canvas is infinite. If there's not enough place, there's place for an extra drawing and I put it together.What I learned is, it's very easy to handle an object library in the Concepts app. Most of my life, I was working with PowerPoint. PowerPoint means use it as a tool putting different visual objects together. This PowerPoint style of working I can use with a Concepts app. If I drawing a house or a special icon, some eggs are very easy, a square or triangle. I can put it on the surface as well.But if it's a little bit more complicated, a stopwatch or so with some details, it costs me a few minutes to do it well. Then I can go to the library, put it together, and it's all my shape. It looks like freshly drawn from Edmund. It's not a library I bought.MR: You made it yourself.EG: I can say from Microsoft. I would say, okay, there are a lot of visuals, but they are not from me. And it makes it very personal to use my own icons, my own drawings. What I have to learn is to write my name with nice letters. And that's not so easy, it takes me most of the time to learn this architect's handwriting.It's all in Concepts. It's now not so difficult to, produce nicely looking stuff. Not only for me but also for others. Also, I'm not an illustrator. I'm not a professional artist. And graceful enough, that was the phrase I got from Mauro Toselli.He said, "The sketch notes must be graceful enough, not more." There's no need for, but if they're really ugly, someone would say, okay, it's hard to read. I do not really understand. Is it a horse or a dog or so? It must be graceful enough. That's possible very easily with pre-drawn objects I use most times.MR: Interesting.EG: Therefore, if you say there's a better tool, okay, I will have a look at it, but at the moment, I'm pretty happy with my Concepts app.MR: That's good. That's good. We'd like to hear that. It's always about finding what fits the way you work. Some people, Procreate just works the way they like to, and they don't have these challenges of sizing in vectors, and it works fine for them, which is great. But if you have other needs, it's great that there are other software out there that can do what you need to do. It's important that we have variety, and we definitely. We are very lucky that the iPad has lots of options available to us.EG: It's the same iPad, it's the same pencil, and everyone can use the tool which fits to his own personal styles.MR: Yeah, I still use the app Paper, by WeTransfer, which hasn't really changed too much, but I've become pretty fluent with it, so I can work really quickly. If I do illustrations, I have to move to another tool like Procreate or Concepts. But for really super quick ideas, for me, it's just really efficient.I've learned that in my career when I'm faced with a heavy deadline, it's wise for me to choose a tool that I'm fluent in because I'm speedier in that tool than if I tried the perfect tool for it, but I don't have familiarity with it yet. That's a lesson I've learnedEG: As I learned in my profession, whatever tool you are using, you have to use it really professionally, and you have—it's not only starting with the tool and being very fluent or very efficient, you must know your tool very well.MR: Yes. Yep. Well, that's great to hear. Really simple tool set both on the analog and digital side. Let's shift a little bit more, and let's talk about your tips. The three tips that you might share. I always frame this, imagine someone's listening, they are visual thinker, whatever that means to them. And they're excited about the space, just like we talked about our excitement about the community, but maybe they've hit a plateau or they just feel they need a little bit of inspiration. What would be three things that Edmund would tell them to kind of encourage them and break them out of maybe being stuck?EG: Starting with sketch notes, that was always the question, how to find a personal motivation going on improving your skills. One of the motivation as I showed you are books. I love it to learn from books. But what is even better learning from other people? With my company where there's self-organized learning groups, we're growing up. I learned this self-organized learning groups are the best to improve yourself.One of your podcasts Mike, there's a team about LernOS. They had a 12-week journey, different stuff. There's also a learning journey for sketch notes, and you have self-organized meetings every week and having a Zoom meeting or so, sharing my report or whatever.It's little bit like there are some examples, some exercises you can do together, but you can do as a homework for the next meeting. That's the way I like to learn. It's better than sitting with a blank sheet of paper at home and reading the book and—MR: Struggling. Yeah.EG: Struggling.MR: That, by the way was for those listening is season eight was an episode with Karl Damke and Raffaelina Rossetti.EG: Rossetti. Raffaelina Rossetti is her name. Yeah.MR: You can learn about that movement there in the podcast.EG: There's a link to the internet also where the Sketchnoting Guide is, and so, and it's amazing stuff. Getting the right people for the sketchnoting Circle. That's my next advice. Typically, they are distributed around the world. That's not your neighbor, the sketch noter, or the other neighbor on the other side of the street. They're somewhere in this internet universe.Some years ago, I found this Sketchnote Army Slack platform you established, Mike. And there's one folder with announcement of LernOS sketchnoting groups, and that's sub organized to find others. They're interested to have on Friday afternoon five o'clock or so, the next 12-week we want to join this sketch noting journey. And they're from different countries, different professions, different skills in drawing that's not only the beginners or the specialists. It's like these schools and former times they are the small and the older, the grownup children, and they help each other.MR: The one-room schoolhouse, we would say in the United States. Back in the days.EG: This one-room schoolhouse you have in the Slack rooms. You find all these people and it's this mindset sharing things, learning together, and so, you would never find them in real life.MR: Yeah. That's two points. That's number two.EG: Two points. The last one, I want to repeat, Zettelkasten is my second brain. Zettelkasten it's also your second brain. You have a lot of experience in note-taking, different tools, but looking at this concept to get a step higher in efficiency, in effective note taking, and making things easier than they are.MR: Great. Well, those are three great tips. Thanks so much for sharing those. And definitely, encourage you to do all those things, both the LernOS and explore Zettelkasten. So Edmund, what's the best way for people to reach out if they have questions about Zettelkasten and sketchnoting or something else, what's the best place to go?EG: Mike, you said you are sharing some links about me.MR: Yes. We'll definitely share links.EG: It's very easy because I look at my posts nearly every day in LinkedIn. In Instagram, you'll see some of the sketch notes, the newer ones. Most of them are sketch notes before they are published in the ebook. On Twitter, there's a chance for communication very fast. Is it one year ago, Mike we had this discussion about sketch note manifesto?MR: Yes. That's been around. I think Mauro has been talking about this for years.EG: Yes. That was an idea from him and I mixed it a little bit up with atrial development. Then we had a discussion about it. That's the style of communicating and Twitter. And yeah. I also have this in your link list a Linktree. Yeah. All the other stuff are from Masterton or from the forums about Zettelkasten. There's a Zettelkasten forum and Obsidian forum. Also, there are new ideas I discussed with others, and they also get the feedback. I'm learning with all these guys.MR: I'll look on the Link tree. You have several links here, LinkedIn, Instagram, medium, Pinterest, Masterdom, and on Twitter, and eBook.EG: On all platforms, there are links to the GitHub platform. There's the PDF file of the actual version of this e-book, "How to Take Useful Notes."MR: Yeah, I see it here. We've got links for all these things, everyone. So we'll put 'em in the show notes so you can see and jump and look at all these things that Edmund has been talking about. Especially, if you really want to get into this Zettelkasten with Obsidian and using your sketch notes, making a way to organize 'em.I'm inspired, I'm gonna do some looking at this because I think there's an opportunity for me to level up, like all the work I've done and make some sense of it. It might be interesting to see, looking back over it what connections there are. Maybe it's a big job though, Edmund. I don't know. That could be a lifetime just organizing all this junk I've made.EG: I will tell you the story. Maybe I published the story about the new situation before Mike Rohde's podcast and afterwards. Or is it worth a sketch note to say, that was my life before and that was the life after?MR: Yeah. Well, as a process engineer, you're gonna wanna know what's the input, which is doing the podcast. And the output is, are you suddenly getting more downloads of your book? And questions about doing Zettelkasting with sketch notes. That would be ideal because you're a pioneer in this space. I think Chris Wilson is another person in the space that's explored, we talked about in his interview, he was starting to play with Obsidian.EG: I listened to this podcast from him. It was the first time I saw some sketch noter using the Zettelkasten.MR: You two need to get together and do a workshop for everybody, so you can sort of walk them through. That could be interestingEG: If you know a female sketch noter from Denmark, Ingrid LiLL.MR: Oh yeah, of course. Yeah.EG: He is also starting with the Zettelkasten.MR: Oh, there you go. Now you have three people to your merry band, so you can maybe do some kind of a teaching.EG: It's a very small community.MR: That's okay. Sketchnoting community is small, but getting bigger every day. So you have to start somewhere, Edmund, you have to start somewhere.EG: It's the 1% of the sketch noters using Zettelkasten.MR: Yeah, exactly. That's okay. If it works for you, then you can do itEG: All things I believe ever starting small.MR: Yes. The best things start small. Well, Edmund—go ahead.EG: No, no.MR: I was just gonna say thank you so much for your participation. I see you on LinkedIn and Instagram and Twitter. You're always so kind and you have such kind words, and I just love that. You could have easily retired and just gone to Majorca and like, just enjoyed your life and not done any of this work, but yet you choose curiosity and sharing and giving, and I really appreciate that and I admire that. So, thank you for giving back to the community and making it a better place. That's so much what we need.EG: Thank you for having me.MR: You're so welcome.EG: It was really fun. Also, the story in the beginning you told before the podcast, it was a wonderful evening.MR: Yeah. I told him my German experiences that made me fall in love with Germans and Germany. Maybe I'll tell that story sometime. Well, everyone, this has been another episode of "The Sketchnote Army Podcast." So until the next episode, we will talk to you soon.EG: Thank you. Have a nice evening. Bye-bye, Mikey.MR: See ya.

I never thought I'd be talking about robots and artificial intelligence on this podcast. But, here I go. If you've heard of ChatGPT-4 (for the sake of brevity, I'll just call it ChatGPT going forward), you've likely also heard that some businesses are attempting to let this AI create all their marketing content. If you think that sounds amazing (and who wouldn't?), you might also wonder if it's too good to be true (a sign that you're a smart human).Because ChatGPT is still quite new, I decided to interview the bot itself on all things marketing. Primarily, I wanted to know whether it was smart to allow ChatGPT to do time-consuming marketing tasks, such as writing entire blog posts.Secondarily, I was curious. As a techy person, I've largely considered technology to be my friend, but ChatGPT had me feeling a little apprehensive - because if a robot could create free marketing content in seconds, would that content even be effective? Was there a right and a wrong way to use AI in marketing?ChatGPT was refreshingly transparent when answering my questions. By the end of the interview, I found myself saying niceties such as “please” and “thank you” and got weird satisfaction from watching it type answers to my questions at a scintillating rate. Here are the results of that interview. Enjoy!

The Overcoming Path (Audio) David Eells - 4/23/23 Chose the Unleavened Path Samuel Fire - 4/9/23 (David's notes in red) I saw a cliff face and there were many ropes to help one climb up it. Each rope had its own way to the top, but only one rope would last and not break. (The one that won't break is the Unleavened Bread of Christ).  Each of the ropes was a teaching on the paths up to God (Representing apostate Church doctrines), but these could not be completely relied on all the way to God.   All the ropes except one had breaks in them and defects somewhere up the course and either someone would fall or they would see the error and climb back down to get on another path. There was only one path that fully made it to the top safely. (Representing the true Gospel that Jesus is the only way to heaven. John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by me. The way is a path not a line that we step over. The path and steps are already laid down. It is Jesus' steps. 1Jo. 2:5-6 but whoso keepeth his word, in him verily hath the love of God been perfected. Hereby we know that we are in him: 6 he that saith he abideth in him ought himself also to walk even as he walked.)   Carrying Away Distraction and Idolatry Claire Pienaar - 4/18/23 (David's notes in red)  I dreamed I was going somewhere. I kept forgetting where my red bag was. I knew I needed my wallet and my cellphone that were both in the red bag. I found my red bag near Sarah-Marie's room so, I picked it up and carried it with me. (Sarah-Marie means Princess of darkness.) It seemed to be a hindrance in some way. It wasn't heavy or big, and it only had my cellphone and wallet inside. (Jesus told His disciples not to bring a wallet so they would trust in God and not be self-reliant. Also, a cell phone is often an idol and distracts us from the things of God.) I could have gone on without it. (Riaan: The bag is red representing the sacrifice of Christ. His blood was shed to deliver us from these fleshly things.)  I seemed to hold up a process due to going to fetch this bag, and my friend named Sarah-Marie really liked the bag, and she said something like, “You can't go without this lovely red handbag.” (We cannot listen to the “Princess of darkness” or rebellion because it will hold up our process of sanctification.) My husband Riaan kept on calling me while holding a transparent door open for me. (Riaan represents our Heavenly Husband, Jesus, who is the “Door to the sheepfold”. The Door is transparent because Jesus is pure.) It looked like we were entering into a ship or a large conference hall, or an airplane. (The Ark as well as an airplane are lifted off of the earth.) All I saw was the thick glass door and the side of a structure that made me think of all 3 of these structures at once. (Riaan: People are running after money and distractions of the world and missing the calling of the Man-child, Jesus.) (We must make it through the Door and into the Ark.) I asked the Lord for a verse by faith at random for this dream and received Eze. 6:13 And ye shall know that I am Jehovah, when their slain men shall be among their idols round about their altars, upon every high hill, on all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the places where they offered sweet savor to all their idols. (Riaan: This verse Claire received speaks of idols – the modern altars represent wallets or self-provision and cellphones represent worldly reliance's or addictions and distractions.) I asked the Lord if this is for me, and I received “they return” and “their heart” in this text below by faith at random. (All who repent from the heart and come out from among them will be restored.) 2Ch 6:38, (in context 36-42) If they sin against thee (for there is no man that sinneth not), and thou be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captive unto a land far off or near; yet if they shall bethink themselves in the land whither they are carried captive, and turn again, and make supplication unto thee in the land of their captivity, saying, We have sinned, we have done perversely, and have dealt wickedly; if they return unto thee with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, whither they have carried them captive, and pray toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers (i.e., what was given us by the early Church fathers we return to.), and the city which thou hast chosen, and toward the house which I have built for thy name: then hear thou from heaven, even from thy dwelling-place, their prayer and their supplications, and maintain their cause, and forgive thy people who have sinned against thee. Now, O my God, let, I beseech thee, thine eyes be open, and let thine ears be attent, unto the prayer that is made in this place. Now therefore arise, O Jehovah God, into thy resting-place, thou, and the ark of thy strength: let thy priests, O Jehovah God, be clothed with salvation, and let thy saints rejoice in goodness. O Jehovah God, turn not away the face of thine anointed: remember thy lovingkindnesses to David thy servant. (Riaan: The bag is used to “carry away” something, like in this second verse. The blood of Jesus carries away captive these worldly idols.)   Overcoming Rejection to Achieve Unity Samuel Fire - 4/1/23 (David's notes in red) I saw all these children and I on an American school bus, the yellow with black stripe type and with the stop signs flaps. Everybody in the bus were from UBM. They were all young, like children under 10yrs of age. We then arrived at the school and got together in a classroom, and we each sat at our own desk. We participated in a mixture of subjects. The learning was interactive, and we were all given tests and participated in the learning. (As we will see, people with rejection are not comfortable with what they feel is competition.) Some of the children didn't feel to go to school, but once they arrived at school and sat in the classroom, they were happy and appreciated the lesson. I saw myself and others having struggles and difficulty in understanding the subjects and felt left out as we weren't making as much progress as the others. (This is when rejection spirits lie to their victims that correction equals rejection, and this brings frustration and offense.) I saw how other children were favored and always top in the class and that made it harder for me and others to team up and interact with them. I also saw how that many in the class were having to repeat many subjects, but not able to comprehend the materials. (Many times, this is inherited through the blood and can be treated with love and deliverance.) But the whole time, I felt and saw and heard the calm, peaceful and kind teaching of Jesus and His constant dedication and willingness to not give up on any of us. I was feeling the love and each time we went home on the bus we grew closer and wanted to see each other again. (Recognizing the spirits behind this is the first step to deliverance. Learning to cast down illegal thoughts about others, unforgiveness, and vain imaginations will help too. If this is not repented of it can end in faction, anger, and a great delusion and sin.)   Remnant Overcomers Tiannah Fire - 2/25/23 (David's notes in red) I dreamt that David Eells and the UBM brethren were all living together on top of a large hill that was like a national park. The hill had an open grass area where the brethren had simple huts as their houses. (This represents basic living and needs met, like the original church in Acts). The huts were all in this open area and close together. There was a large campfire with rocks around and log seats where the brethren would gather around together especially at night for prayer. Here they would praise, worship, and fellowship with the brethren and here David would teach. (In the natural we've actually done this, but Tiannah doesn't know that.) David felt like a fatherly figure in the dream, acting and treating the brethren as a father would. In the dream my relationship with David felt as a father daughter relationship and he had that with the other brethren too. In the dream the brethren seemed like children with child-like faith. They were eager to learn and humble to let go of their own way and to learn the Father's way. It also felt like David was like an elder of a tribe and I believe he is representing the Father in the dream. On 2 sides of the hill was a cliff that was overlooking water. On the other 2 sides were more forests, nature, and land that went much further. There was a giant dam and river that was on one of the sides and you could only walk across the top of the dam by foot. It was very dangerous because you could slip so easily and fall far down. (Three out of four fell away in the parable of the sower in Mat. 13:18-23. One of the four went on to bear fruit 30, 60 and 100 fold.) In the dream I was going to the other side of the land to where I thought I was to wait until the hut for me was completed and then I would return to the UBM camp. (The hut could represent our temporary tabernacle in the wilderness, which represents a personal relationship with the Lord as in the Feast of Tabernacles.) So, I went to go walk across the top of the dam and it was super slippery, and it was a long walk to get across to the other side of the land. I looked over to the other side and in the water, there were around 50 giant, white seals that were really large. (These creatures are white and large representing maturity and purity. They are at home in the water representing those who are mature in the Water of the Word and they mentor others through the slippery places along their walk.) They all turned and stared at me. Some of them ran over to me and stayed on either side of me maybe 10 on my left and 10 on my right and a few in front and behind me. They all watched me the whole time as they guided me and walked me across the dam so that I wouldn't slip or fall. (Many disciple the younger along the path in hope that they will bear fruit.) I felt they were all protecting me and wanted to keep me safe. They stayed in the dam and water area as I continued walking through the nature park. There were no maps or roads, so I had to just walk straight ahead by Faith. I came to a building that was sort of like a security building. There were some people waiting at this building that weren't allowed to go across the dam yet or go to the UBM camp until they had passed all these checks and tests. The people working in this building were like security guards and anyone that wanted to go live with or be with the UBM brethren had to go through background checks and answer many questions. They had to spend a period of time in this holding facility; maybe weeks, months, or years until they passed everything required. (30, 60, and 100 is a progression of fruit in maturity. It comes by overcoming tests.) If they passed, they were allowed to try to cross over the dam and if they survived, they could go be with the brethren. (We have seen many people going through tests to see if they belong here and some failing the test of Love necessary for unity in holiness.) I felt that no one was physically able to get past this building or the dam unless they successfully passed the security. It was as if there was an invisible wall or line that prevented anyone from crossing. If they didn't pass, they either stayed in this facility until they passed or they just gave up and left. There were a couple of people that had been at this facility for many, many years waiting to be approved, but most people just left to back to normal life after a short period of time. It seemed that only a tiny amount of people was approved, let alone, approved in a quick or short period of time. (Only the remnant of overcomers will be approved [to belong to the corporate Bride Body.]) I remember seeing a big line up of women waiting to get checked into the facility to go through the security process but most of the women got denied so they weren't even qualified to go through the checking process. (This represents the “house of the women in Esther who were being prepared to be tested by the King of kings. God loved Esther above all the women and made her the Bride.) I spoke to a few of them and tried to encourage them to press on toward Jesus, but they weren't interested. It felt like they weren't there for Jesus. (This represents apostacy and selfish desires. They were Jezebels, so they weren't approved [like Vashti].) The people who worked at the security holding facility knew who I was, and I told them I am here until my hut is ready for me. They told me that the hut was almost built, and I should start walking back and when I get there it will be complete. I was surprised because I had only just come from that UBM area, and I thought it would take much longer to build my hut and I thought I was going to have to stay at the security facility for a while. (Psa. 81:13-14 Oh that my people would hearken unto me, That Israel would walk in my ways! 14 I would soon subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their adversaries. And Est. 2:9 And the maiden pleased him, and she obtained kindness of him; and he speedily gave her her things for purification, with her portions, and the seven maidens who were meet to be given her out of the king's house: and he removed her and her maidens to the best place of the house of the women. ) They gave me some supplies and they walked me over to a stable and showed me all these different horses and told me to choose one. I said, “I am not sure if I am allowed a pet in the UBM camp area that I was about to move into. They told me that the horse is more than a pet and they have been working there for much longer than I have been on earth and that the horse will be valuable to all the brethren. They encouraged me to pick a horse. I said, “I don't know anything about horses so please pick the best one for me.” And they gave me a nice horse and I got on and started riding back to the dam to go back to the UBM camp. (Horses represent the strength of the flesh but Tiannah was subduing it by riding on its back to make it to the UBM camp. This represents overcoming the flesh to be in the Bride.)   Separate the Sheep from the Goats  Claire Pienaar - 3/21/23 (David's notes in red) I dreamed I was in a 12-story, white building. I lived either on level 9 or level 11 (The number 12 represents completeness. We are living stones, making up the Bride of Christ). (This reminds me of the tower of white stones representing the Church that was shown to Hermas in the “Shepherd of Hermas.”) I was very happy there but wanted to see my dad more. (Claire's dad represents the Father in the dream.) I had to go down to the ground level (Representing the threshing floor). I found Him busy sorting out young sheep and goats. A little lamb followed me all the way up to my level, but he had a blood stain on his belly. (Riaan: To go where the Bride goes requires death to self [which, spiritually speaking, requires the shedding of blood through the cutting off of the “belly”.]). Some baby goats tried to come through different doors that were open, but my dad said, “Keep the doors shut”. (Representing that we must keep our spiritual doors shut so that we won't become as the rebellious goats.) I shoo'd the kids away. He was training someone young to take part in a very elite running race. He said, “I've timed him, and he's almost ready”. (We don't have much time to run our race. We must overcome and endure till the end to hear the Lord say, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you…”) Then I woke up.   I received by faith at random Isa. 38:12 My dwelling is removed and is carried away from me as a shepherd's tent, as well as Hosea 13:13 The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him: he is an unwise son; for it is time he should not tarry in the place of the breaking forth of children. (Riaan: It's time to mature).  Later that morning I opened one of the books I'm using with my children that gives meaningful explanations about sanctification and holiness, written for children. The portion of scripture for that day's discussion was Mat. 25:31-46, which is EXACTLY what my dream was about. I did not know this portion of scripture would be discussed, as I only open this book at lesson time, and I don't generally prep these lessons beforehand. God knows! Thank you, Lord.  Mat. 25:31-46  But when the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory: 32 and before him shall be gathered all the nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats; 33 and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. 34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35 for I was hungry, and ye gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in; 36 naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came unto me. 37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee hungry, and fed thee? or athirst, and gave thee drink? 38 And when saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? 39 And when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? 40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these my brethren, even these least, ye did it unto me. 41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels: 42 for I was hungry, and ye did not give me to eat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink; 43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in; naked, and ye clothed me not; sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. 44 Then shall they also answer, saying, Lord, when saw we thee hungry, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? 45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not unto one of these least, ye did it not unto me. 46 And these shall go away into eternal punishment: but the righteous into eternal life.   Death to Self Leads to Resurrection Life Gaynold Mozer - 1/16/23 (David's notes in red) It was a bright sunny day, and I was walking with someone on a sidewalk. (representing that the sun/Son shines upon us when we walk the narrow road.) It seemed to be on a college campus somewhere. (A college campus represents a place of higher learning.) There were quite a few other people gathered in small groups here and there along the way. It was a beautiful day, and everyone was happy and joyful. At the end of the sidewalk there were a couple glass doors going into what I thought to be a building, but once inside I felt that I was in a cave as it was so dark. (I do not know who was walking with me, but felt it was someone I knew.) (Jesus is walking with us as we walk the straight and narrow unto the death of our flesh nature represented by the cave. Jesus was buried in a cave after His death by the cross and so must we. There is a parallel between what happened to Jesus in His death, burial and resurrection and what is happening with the Man-child/Bride bodies.) This was not a large cave but seemed to be 30-40 feet long. (The Number 30 is considered the number of maturity and the number 40 represents a period of testing or trial.)  The darkness was so dense and overwhelming. The idea of it being a cave never entered my mind before we entered through the glass doors. (We must all lose our fleshly life which is against God that our spiritual life would rule. Mic 7:7-9 But as for me, I will look unto Jehovah; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me. 8 Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, Jehovah will be a light unto me. 9 I will bear the indignation of Jehovah, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness.) Once inside the doors (As in Claire's dream above, Jesus is the transparent Door. We enter the Kingdom only through Him and His resurrection life.) I got separated from the person that had been walking with me. (This reminds me of what Jesus cried out on His cross in Mat. 27:45-46 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. 46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Jesus felt separated too during His death experience.)  It was very dark, so it was hard to recognize people as they just looked like shadows moving about. (When we are going through our death to self process we become hard to recognize because we are shadows of our former selves.) I didn't want to stand in the path, so I moved up to the highest row of seating available which was the third row.) (Jesus said after 3 days I will rise again. The three rows could also represents bearing the 30-, 60-, and 100-fold fruit of Christ.)  There were planks set into the steep bank of a hill that was very hard dirt. The ceiling of this area was barely above the highest seating space. I sat quietly waiting to hear the voice of the person that walked in with me so that I could locate them and sit with them, but I awakened not knowing what had happened to the person that walked in with me. (He is still there in spirit with us even in our darkest moments.) … There were people scattered about sitting on the rows of planks, but the area was far from full. (The first fruits harvest is small. Few are taught the crucified life or Jesus' message of death to self.) I received by faith at random Jeremiah 4:6 for this dream.  My finger was on the words, "flee for safety". This chapter is very fitting for these days. Jeremiah 4:6 Set up a standard toward Zion (the Bride):  flee for safety, stay not; for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction. (Those who are dead to self, like the first fruits Bride, are safe from judgment.) The Lord brought to my attention the parable of the sower in Matthew 13.  Thank you, Father, for the seed sown upon good ground, for those who hear the word and understand it; that they may bear much fruit and bring glory and honor to Your Name. In Jesus Name, Amen.   A Study on Ephesians David Eells - 3/24/23 Eph 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, to the saints that are at Ephesus, and the faithful in Christ Jesus: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ: (Notice that every spiritual blessing, including grace and peace are available to them who abide IN heavenly places, which are IN Jesus.) 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before him in love: (Notice that He chose us to be holy and without blemish and the `doing of it is IN Him? How do we access this? Primarily by Faith, which is "believing we have received" as Jesus commanded in Mark 11:24. - 2Co 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit.  Secondarily by manifestation.  1Jo 1:4-6 and these things we write that our joy may be made full. 5 And this is the message which we have heard from him and announce unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: … 1Jo 2:24 As for you, let that abide in you which ye heard from the beginning. If that which ye heard from the beginning abide in you, ye also shall abide in the Son, and in the Father.)  Eph 1:5 having foreordained us (the faithful saints are addresses in verse 1) unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, (First we are sons by faith - Gal 3:26 For ye are all sons of God, through faith, in Christ Jesus.  As we walk with Jesus we manifest Him - Pro 29:21 He that delicately bringeth up his servant from a child Shall have him become a son at the last. Rom 8:19  For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the revealing (or manifestation) of the sons of God. Rom 8:23 And not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.  We first manifest sonship in spirit and soul. When we are first changed, it is our spirit that is born again. The soul, which is the mind, will, and emotions, is born again as we obey that spirit and walk in obedience to truth as Peter said.  1Pe 1:22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in your obedience to the truth unto unfeigned love of the brethren, love one another from the heart fervently: 23 having been begotten again (in soul), not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God, which liveth and abideth. (Notice the incorruptible seed that births our soul is obedience to the Word. This born-again soul is Jesus' mind, will, and emotions.) But the born-again body is still to be redeemed and it will be different according to each persons works. 1Co 15:35 But some one will say, How are the dead raised? and with what manner of body do they come? ... 41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differeth from another star in glory. 42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption. We are creating this new body now by our works. 2Co 5:1-4 For we know that if the earthly house of our tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens. 2 For verily in this we groan, longing to be clothed upon with our habitation which is from heaven: (We notice here that our new house is our new body, and it is also described as a garment and they are different. The Bride has a lampros or radiant garment while those invited to the marriage have only a leukos or white garment in Rev 19. And we are to hate the garment spotted by the flesh, meaning fleshly works in Jude 1:23.  Eph 1:3 if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. (I.e., without righteous works only our sinful flesh is seen.) 4 For indeed we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened; not for that we would be unclothed (I.e. The body dies), but that we would be clothed upon, that what is mortal may be swallowed up of life…. 10 For we must all be made manifest before the judgment-seat (Literally “footprint tribunal” I.e., did you walk as he walked; meaning bearing your cross?) of Christ; that each one may receive the (new) body, according to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Again - 10 For we must all be made manifest before the “footprint tribunal” of Christ; that each one may receive through the body (Other versions say, “the things done in the body” but the Numeric has “through the body”.), according to what he hath done, whether good or bad. (So, we will receive a body according to how much we abide in Him in our works.) Eph 1:6 to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved: (Notice: All grace for everything is given as we abide “in” Jesus. So how do we receive power from Him to abide in Him? By Faith we see and speak of ourselves as the finished product because Jesus made reconciliation, which word means, an exchange of His life for ours at the cross.) Gal 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith, which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me.  2Co 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit. So, it is a necessity to abide IN Jesus to bear His fruit. Joh 15:1-8 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. 2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh it away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he cleanseth it, that it may bear more fruit. 3 Already ye are clean because of the word which I have spoken unto you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; so neither can ye, except ye abide in me. 5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for apart from me ye can do nothing. 6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. (This is the 3 of 4 that fall away) 7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done unto you. 8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; and so shall ye be my disciples.  People who do their own thing and make up their own rules are not abiding IN Him and do not enter into His grace.  How do we abide IN Him? 1Jn 2:24 As for you, let that abide in you which ye heard from the beginning. If that which ye heard from the beginning abide in you, ye also shall abide in the Son, and in the Father. 1Jn 2:6 he that saith he abideth in him ought himself also to walk even as he walked. (That walk is as a disciple; a learner and follower.) 2Jn 1:9-11 Whosoever goeth onward and abideth not in the teaching of Christ, hath not God: he that abideth in the teaching, the same hath both the Father and the Son. 10 If any one cometh unto you, and bringeth not this teaching, receive him not into your house, and give him no greeting: 11 for he that giveth him greeting partaketh in his evil works. (This Ephesians text continues to speak of what is given to us as we abide IN Jesus.) 7 in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, (Notice the fullness of our redemption and forgiveness of our sins is ours as we abide IN Him through faith in His Blood. We get a spiritual transfusion and exchange of our old sinful blood to His righteous blood.)   Eph 1:8 which he made to abound toward us IN all wisdom and prudence, (As we prudently seek His wisdom, redemption will manifest in us.) 9 making known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him (His purposes will be established in us as we know His will.) 10 unto a dispensation of the fulness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth; in him, I say, (If we walk by faith, when our time is up we will be completely IN Christ.) 11 in whom also we were made a heritage, having been foreordained according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his will; (As we abide in Him we become His heritage as He purposed.) 12 to the end that we should be unto the praise of his glory, we who had before hoped in Christ: (As our hope is in Him and not the world, He will receive praise and glory.) 13 in whom ye also, having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation (We were chosen in Him to have ears to hear.) , --in whom, having also believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, (Look at those who do not receive the Holy Spirit as commanded and demonstrated in Acts. They are blind to truth and power which the Holy Spirit is to lead us in.)  14 which is an earnest of our inheritance, unto the redemption of God's own possession, unto the praise of his glory. (The Holy Spirit is our down payment to lead us in all that God has for us so we may bring glory to Him.)  15 For this cause I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is among you, and the love which ye show toward all the saints, (Will others hear of our faith and Love? I hope so.) 16 cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him; (If Paul can pray for the saints to have this most powerful of gifts, we can pray for it too. Give this to us Lord!)  18 having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, ("Calling" here means an invitation. Faith will come to us when we know that we are invited to partake of all that is Christ and all that He has, just as we see Him in the mirror.) 19 and what the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to that working of the strength of his might (His power to bring to pass what we believe is exceedingly greater than we know. We must become as a child in trusting our Father.)  20 which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places, (His exceeding power raised the bodies of the saints from dust to show themselves to the people. And He still raises the dead today.) (Jesus is:) 21 far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: 22 and he put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all. (And here we see that this dominion over all has been put under the very lowest member of His body, His feet, while He remains the brains of the outfit. This is why we need a revelation of His exceeding great power to us who believe.) Eph 2:1 And you did he make alive, when ye were dead through your trespasses and sins, (Now that we are alive from the dead and a member of His Body, He can do all things through us. Let us not doubt.) 2 wherein ye once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the powers of the air, of the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience; (The sons of disobedience are the ones who are disobedient. They may even make excuses for this like once saved always saved or that they are just sinners saved by grace But they dont want to accept that grace saves from sin because they love it.) 3 among whom we also all once lived in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest:— (But many so called “Christians” are still in this corrupt state and they want to think it's normal. What a shock they will receive when they meet their maker to find out he isn't God.  Pray for them to wake up saints.) 4 but God, being rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace have ye been saved), (1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. We are now dead to sin but alive with His life for we are His body and He lives in His body.)  6 and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places, IN Christ Jesus: (Our heavenly place is to abide in Him. We are told of a great falling away of the stars of heaven who lose their position to sit next to him. Why? Because they were given everything they needed to overcome, and they refused it.  The promises are given to the overcomers only.)  Rev 2:7 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. To him that overcometh, to him will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.  …11 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.  …17 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. To him that overcometh, to him will I give of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and upon the stone a new name written, which no one knoweth but he that receiveth it.  …26 And he that overcometh, and he that keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give authority over the nations: … 3:21 He that overcometh, I will give to him to sit down with me in my throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father in his throne.  Eph 2:7 that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus: (All was freely given and should be freely received and freely shared as Jesus taught us.)  8 for by grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not of works (of man), that no man should glory. (All of the called have "been saved" from every curse as is said in Gal 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. The curse of sin and death has been dealt with and is no longer the problem, which is unbelief.  Some say they have believed but it is "in vain" for their faith is in the traditions of men.  1Co 15:1 Now I make known unto you brethren, the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye received, wherein also ye stand, 2 by which also ye are saved, if ye hold fast the word which I preached unto you, except ye believed in vain. (This means believed for nothing and got nothing.) 2Co 6:1 And working together with him we entreat also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. (Meaning grace was given but not acted on.) Eph 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God afore prepared that we should walk in them. (These are obviously not man's works but God's work through man who believes Him.) 11 Wherefore remember, that once ye, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called Circumcision, in the flesh, made by hands; And Rom 2:28-29 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh: 29 but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.) Eph 2:12 that ye were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now IN Christ Jesus ye that once were far off are made nigh in the blood of Christ. And Rom 9:8 That is, it is not the children of the flesh that are children of God; but the children of the promise are reckoned for a seed. … 26 And it shall be, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, There shall they be called sons of the living God.  27 And Isaiah crieth concerning Israel, If the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that shall be saved.  Rom 11:25-26 For I would not, brethren, have you ignorant of this mystery, lest ye be wise in your own conceits, that a hardening in part hath befallen Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in; 26 and so all Israel shall be saved (Notice that “all Israel" here is both Jew and Gentile joined in one new covenant.): even as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer; He shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:   Eph 2:14 For he is our peace, who made both one, and brake down the middle wall of partition, 15 having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; that he might create in himself of the two one new man, so making peace; (Notice there is only one covenant, and it makes us both one. The Law brought enmity and division but grace through faith makes one of all ethnicities) 16 and might reconcile them both in one body unto God through the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: …  20 being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief corner stone; 21 in whom each several building, fitly framed together, groweth into a holy temple in the Lord; 22 in whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of God in the Spirit. ... Eph 3:14 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, that ye may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man; 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith (If Paul can pray for this strengthening of God's Spirit so that Christ would live in us, so can we.); to the end that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled unto all the fulness of God. 20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, 21 unto him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus unto all generations for ever and ever. Amen.  4:1 I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beseech you to walk worthily of the calling wherewith ye were called, 2 with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; 3 giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. … 7 But unto each one of us was the grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ. ... 11 And he gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; (The Man-child reformers are about to do what Jesus did; Send Apostles to raise up the 5 fold ministries.)  12 for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ: 13 till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a fullgrown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: (Jesus will walk the earth again in His fullness in His body.) 14 that we may be no longer children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error;  ... 17 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye no longer walk as the Gentiles also walk, in the vanity of their mind,(And also the non Spirit filled apostate Churches)  18 being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their heart; ... 22 that ye put away, as concerning your former manner of life, the old man, that waxeth corrupt after the lusts of deceit; 23 and that ye be renewed in the spirit of your mind, (With the mind of Christ which is the Word.) 24 and put on the new man, that after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth. 25 Wherefore, putting away falsehood, speak ye truth each one with his neighbor: for we are members one of another.  26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: 27 neither give place to the devil. ...29 Let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth, but such as is good for edifying as the need may be, that it may give grace to them that hear. 30 And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in whom ye were sealed unto the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and railing, be put away from you, with all malice: (We know that this leads to faction especially in these days when God is separating the tares from the wheat.) 32 and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, even as God also in Christ forgave you. 5:1 Be ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children; 2 and walk in love, even as Christ also loved you, and gave himself up for us, an offering, and a sacrifice to God for an odor of a sweet smell.  3 But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as becometh saints; 4 nor filthiness, nor foolish talking, or jesting, which are not befitting: but rather giving of thanks. 5 For this ye know of a surety, that no fornicator (A broad term for different forms of sexual sin), nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Let no man deceive you with empty words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Be not ye therefore partakers with them; ... 11 and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even reprove them; 12 for the things which are done by them in secret it is a shame even to speak of.  ...18 And be not drunken with wine, wherein is riot, but be filled with the Spirit; 19 speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; 20 giving thanks always for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; 21 subjecting yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ. 22 Wives, be in subjection unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, being himself the saviour of the body. 24 But as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives also be to their husbands in everything.  25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself up for it; 26 that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word, 27 that he might present the church to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish...... 6:1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. 2 Honor thy father and mother (which is the first commandment with promise), 3 that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. 4 And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but nurture them in the chastening and admonition of the Lord.  ... 10 Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.  13 Wherefore take up the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand. 14 Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 withal taking up the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: 18 with all prayer and supplication praying at all seasons in the Spirit, and watching thereunto in all perseverance and supplication for all the saints, ... 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The Overcoming Path (Audio) David Eells - 4/23/23 Chose the Unleavened Path Samuel Fire - 4/9/23 (David's notes in red) I saw a cliff face and there were many ropes to help one climb up it. Each rope had its own way to the top, but only one rope would last and not break. (The one that won't break is the Unleavened Bread of Christ).  Each of the ropes was a teaching on the paths up to God (Representing apostate Church doctrines), but these could not be completely relied on all the way to God.   All the ropes except one had breaks in them and defects somewhere up the course and either someone would fall or they would see the error and climb back down to get on another path. There was only one path that fully made it to the top safely. (Representing the true Gospel that Jesus is the only way to heaven. John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by me. The way is a path not a line that we step over. The path and steps are already laid down. It is Jesus' steps. 1Jo. 2:5-6 but whoso keepeth his word, in him verily hath the love of God been perfected. Hereby we know that we are in him: 6 he that saith he abideth in him ought himself also to walk even as he walked.)   Carrying Away Distraction and Idolatry Claire Pienaar - 4/18/23 (David's notes in red)  I dreamed I was going somewhere. I kept forgetting where my red bag was. I knew I needed my wallet and my cellphone that were both in the red bag. I found my red bag near Sarah-Marie's room so, I picked it up and carried it with me. (Sarah-Marie means Princess of darkness.) It seemed to be a hindrance in some way. It wasn't heavy or big, and it only had my cellphone and wallet inside. (Jesus told His disciples not to bring a wallet so they would trust in God and not be self-reliant. Also, a cell phone is often an idol and distracts us from the things of God.) I could have gone on without it. (Riaan: The bag is red representing the sacrifice of Christ. His blood was shed to deliver us from these fleshly things.)  I seemed to hold up a process due to going to fetch this bag, and my friend named Sarah-Marie really liked the bag, and she said something like, “You can't go without this lovely red handbag.” (We cannot listen to the “Princess of darkness” or rebellion because it will hold up our process of sanctification.) My husband Riaan kept on calling me while holding a transparent door open for me. (Riaan represents our Heavenly Husband, Jesus, who is the “Door to the sheepfold”. The Door is transparent because Jesus is pure.) It looked like we were entering into a ship or a large conference hall, or an airplane. (The Ark as well as an airplane are lifted off of the earth.) All I saw was the thick glass door and the side of a structure that made me think of all 3 of these structures at once. (Riaan: People are running after money and distractions of the world and missing the calling of the Man-child, Jesus.) (We must make it through the Door and into the Ark.) I asked the Lord for a verse by faith at random for this dream and received Eze. 6:13 And ye shall know that I am Jehovah, when their slain men shall be among their idols round about their altars, upon every high hill, on all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the places where they offered sweet savor to all their idols. (Riaan: This verse Claire received speaks of idols – the modern altars represent wallets or self-provision and cellphones represent worldly reliance's or addictions and distractions.) I asked the Lord if this is for me, and I received “they return” and “their heart” in this text below by faith at random. (All who repent from the heart and come out from among them will be restored.) 2Ch 6:38, (in context 36-42) If they sin against thee (for there is no man that sinneth not), and thou be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captive unto a land far off or near; yet if they shall bethink themselves in the land whither they are carried captive, and turn again, and make supplication unto thee in the land of their captivity, saying, We have sinned, we have done perversely, and have dealt wickedly; if they return unto thee with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, whither they have carried them captive, and pray toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers (i.e., what was given us by the early Church fathers we return to.), and the city which thou hast chosen, and toward the house which I have built for thy name: then hear thou from heaven, even from thy dwelling-place, their prayer and their supplications, and maintain their cause, and forgive thy people who have sinned against thee. Now, O my God, let, I beseech thee, thine eyes be open, and let thine ears be attent, unto the prayer that is made in this place. Now therefore arise, O Jehovah God, into thy resting-place, thou, and the ark of thy strength: let thy priests, O Jehovah God, be clothed with salvation, and let thy saints rejoice in goodness. O Jehovah God, turn not away the face of thine anointed: remember thy lovingkindnesses to David thy servant. (Riaan: The bag is used to “carry away” something, like in this second verse. The blood of Jesus carries away captive these worldly idols.)   Overcoming Rejection to Achieve Unity Samuel Fire - 4/1/23 (David's notes in red) I saw all these children and I on an American school bus, the yellow with black stripe type and with the stop signs flaps. Everybody in the bus were from UBM. They were all young, like children under 10yrs of age. We then arrived at the school and got together in a classroom, and we each sat at our own desk. We participated in a mixture of subjects. The learning was interactive, and we were all given tests and participated in the learning. (As we will see, people with rejection are not comfortable with what they feel is competition.) Some of the children didn't feel to go to school, but once they arrived at school and sat in the classroom, they were happy and appreciated the lesson. I saw myself and others having struggles and difficulty in understanding the subjects and felt left out as we weren't making as much progress as the others. (This is when rejection spirits lie to their victims that correction equals rejection, and this brings frustration and offense.) I saw how other children were favored and always top in the class and that made it harder for me and others to team up and interact with them. I also saw how that many in the class were having to repeat many subjects, but not able to comprehend the materials. (Many times, this is inherited through the blood and can be treated with love and deliverance.) But the whole time, I felt and saw and heard the calm, peaceful and kind teaching of Jesus and His constant dedication and willingness to not give up on any of us. I was feeling the love and each time we went home on the bus we grew closer and wanted to see each other again. (Recognizing the spirits behind this is the first step to deliverance. Learning to cast down illegal thoughts about others, unforgiveness, and vain imaginations will help too. If this is not repented of it can end in faction, anger, and a great delusion and sin.)   Remnant Overcomers Tiannah Fire - 2/25/23 (David's notes in red) I dreamt that David Eells and the UBM brethren were all living together on top of a large hill that was like a national park. The hill had an open grass area where the brethren had simple huts as their houses. (This represents basic living and needs met, like the original church in Acts). The huts were all in this open area and close together. There was a large campfire with rocks around and log seats where the brethren would gather around together especially at night for prayer. Here they would praise, worship, and fellowship with the brethren and here David would teach. (In the natural we've actually done this, but Tiannah doesn't know that.) David felt like a fatherly figure in the dream, acting and treating the brethren as a father would. In the dream my relationship with David felt as a father daughter relationship and he had that with the other brethren too. In the dream the brethren seemed like children with child-like faith. They were eager to learn and humble to let go of their own way and to learn the Father's way. It also felt like David was like an elder of a tribe and I believe he is representing the Father in the dream. On 2 sides of the hill was a cliff that was overlooking water. On the other 2 sides were more forests, nature, and land that went much further. There was a giant dam and river that was on one of the sides and you could only walk across the top of the dam by foot. It was very dangerous because you could slip so easily and fall far down. (Three out of four fell away in the parable of the sower in Mat. 13:18-23. One of the four went on to bear fruit 30, 60 and 100 fold.) In the dream I was going to the other side of the land to where I thought I was to wait until the hut for me was completed and then I would return to the UBM camp. (The hut could represent our temporary tabernacle in the wilderness, which represents a personal relationship with the Lord as in the Feast of Tabernacles.) So, I went to go walk across the top of the dam and it was super slippery, and it was a long walk to get across to the other side of the land. I looked over to the other side and in the water, there were around 50 giant, white seals that were really large. (These creatures are white and large representing maturity and purity. They are at home in the water representing those who are mature in the Water of the Word and they mentor others through the slippery places along their walk.) They all turned and stared at me. Some of them ran over to me and stayed on either side of me maybe 10 on my left and 10 on my right and a few in front and behind me. They all watched me the whole time as they guided me and walked me across the dam so that I wouldn't slip or fall. (Many disciple the younger along the path in hope that they will bear fruit.) I felt they were all protecting me and wanted to keep me safe. They stayed in the dam and water area as I continued walking through the nature park. There were no maps or roads, so I had to just walk straight ahead by Faith. I came to a building that was sort of like a security building. There were some people waiting at this building that weren't allowed to go across the dam yet or go to the UBM camp until they had passed all these checks and tests. The people working in this building were like security guards and anyone that wanted to go live with or be with the UBM brethren had to go through background checks and answer many questions. They had to spend a period of time in this holding facility; maybe weeks, months, or years until they passed everything required. (30, 60, and 100 is a progression of fruit in maturity. It comes by overcoming tests.) If they passed, they were allowed to try to cross over the dam and if they survived, they could go be with the brethren. (We have seen many people going through tests to see if they belong here and some failing the test of Love necessary for unity in holiness.) I felt that no one was physically able to get past this building or the dam unless they successfully passed the security. It was as if there was an invisible wall or line that prevented anyone from crossing. If they didn't pass, they either stayed in this facility until they passed or they just gave up and left. There were a couple of people that had been at this facility for many, many years waiting to be approved, but most people just left to back to normal life after a short period of time. It seemed that only a tiny amount of people was approved, let alone, approved in a quick or short period of time. (Only the remnant of overcomers will be approved [to belong to the corporate Bride Body.]) I remember seeing a big line up of women waiting to get checked into the facility to go through the security process but most of the women got denied so they weren't even qualified to go through the checking process. (This represents the “house of the women in Esther who were being prepared to be tested by the King of kings. God loved Esther above all the women and made her the Bride.) I spoke to a few of them and tried to encourage them to press on toward Jesus, but they weren't interested. It felt like they weren't there for Jesus. (This represents apostacy and selfish desires. They were Jezebels, so they weren't approved [like Vashti].) The people who worked at the security holding facility knew who I was, and I told them I am here until my hut is ready for me. They told me that the hut was almost built, and I should start walking back and when I get there it will be complete. I was surprised because I had only just come from that UBM area, and I thought it would take much longer to build my hut and I thought I was going to have to stay at the security facility for a while. (Psa. 81:13-14 Oh that my people would hearken unto me, That Israel would walk in my ways! 14 I would soon subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their adversaries. And Est. 2:9 And the maiden pleased him, and she obtained kindness of him; and he speedily gave her her things for purification, with her portions, and the seven maidens who were meet to be given her out of the king's house: and he removed her and her maidens to the best place of the house of the women. ) They gave me some supplies and they walked me over to a stable and showed me all these different horses and told me to choose one. I said, “I am not sure if I am allowed a pet in the UBM camp area that I was about to move into. They told me that the horse is more than a pet and they have been working there for much longer than I have been on earth and that the horse will be valuable to all the brethren. They encouraged me to pick a horse. I said, “I don't know anything about horses so please pick the best one for me.” And they gave me a nice horse and I got on and started riding back to the dam to go back to the UBM camp. (Horses represent the strength of the flesh but Tiannah was subduing it by riding on its back to make it to the UBM camp. This represents overcoming the flesh to be in the Bride.)   Separate the Sheep from the Goats  Claire Pienaar - 3/21/23 (David's notes in red) I dreamed I was in a 12-story, white building. I lived either on level 9 or level 11 (The number 12 represents completeness. We are living stones, making up the Bride of Christ). (This reminds me of the tower of white stones representing the Church that was shown to Hermas in the “Shepherd of Hermas.”) I was very happy there but wanted to see my dad more. (Claire's dad represents the Father in the dream.) I had to go down to the ground level (Representing the threshing floor). I found Him busy sorting out young sheep and goats. A little lamb followed me all the way up to my level, but he had a blood stain on his belly. (Riaan: To go where the Bride goes requires death to self [which, spiritually speaking, requires the shedding of blood through the cutting off of the “belly”.]). Some baby goats tried to come through different doors that were open, but my dad said, “Keep the doors shut”. (Representing that we must keep our spiritual doors shut so that we won't become as the rebellious goats.) I shoo'd the kids away. He was training someone young to take part in a very elite running race. He said, “I've timed him, and he's almost ready”. (We don't have much time to run our race. We must overcome and endure till the end to hear the Lord say, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you…”) Then I woke up.   I received by faith at random Isa. 38:12 My dwelling is removed and is carried away from me as a shepherd's tent, as well as Hosea 13:13 The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him: he is an unwise son; for it is time he should not tarry in the place of the breaking forth of children. (Riaan: It's time to mature).  Later that morning I opened one of the books I'm using with my children that gives meaningful explanations about sanctification and holiness, written for children. The portion of scripture for that day's discussion was Mat. 25:31-46, which is EXACTLY what my dream was about. I did not know this portion of scripture would be discussed, as I only open this book at lesson time, and I don't generally prep these lessons beforehand. God knows! Thank you, Lord.  Mat. 25:31-46  But when the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory: 32 and before him shall be gathered all the nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats; 33 and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. 34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35 for I was hungry, and ye gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in; 36 naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came unto me. 37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee hungry, and fed thee? or athirst, and gave thee drink? 38 And when saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? 39 And when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? 40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these my brethren, even these least, ye did it unto me. 41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels: 42 for I was hungry, and ye did not give me to eat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink; 43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in; naked, and ye clothed me not; sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. 44 Then shall they also answer, saying, Lord, when saw we thee hungry, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? 45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not unto one of these least, ye did it not unto me. 46 And these shall go away into eternal punishment: but the righteous into eternal life.   Death to Self Leads to Resurrection Life Gaynold Mozer - 1/16/23 (David's notes in red) It was a bright sunny day, and I was walking with someone on a sidewalk. (representing that the sun/Son shines upon us when we walk the narrow road.) It seemed to be on a college campus somewhere. (A college campus represents a place of higher learning.) There were quite a few other people gathered in small groups here and there along the way. It was a beautiful day, and everyone was happy and joyful. At the end of the sidewalk there were a couple glass doors going into what I thought to be a building, but once inside I felt that I was in a cave as it was so dark. (I do not know who was walking with me, but felt it was someone I knew.) (Jesus is walking with us as we walk the straight and narrow unto the death of our flesh nature represented by the cave. Jesus was buried in a cave after His death by the cross and so must we. There is a parallel between what happened to Jesus in His death, burial and resurrection and what is happening with the Man-child/Bride bodies.) This was not a large cave but seemed to be 30-40 feet long. (The Number 30 is considered the number of maturity and the number 40 represents a period of testing or trial.)  The darkness was so dense and overwhelming. The idea of it being a cave never entered my mind before we entered through the glass doors. (We must all lose our fleshly life which is against God that our spiritual life would rule. Mic 7:7-9 But as for me, I will look unto Jehovah; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me. 8 Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, Jehovah will be a light unto me. 9 I will bear the indignation of Jehovah, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness.) Once inside the doors (As in Claire's dream above, Jesus is the transparent Door. We enter the Kingdom only through Him and His resurrection life.) I got separated from the person that had been walking with me. (This reminds me of what Jesus cried out on His cross in Mat. 27:45-46 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. 46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Jesus felt separated too during His death experience.)  It was very dark, so it was hard to recognize people as they just looked like shadows moving about. (When we are going through our death to self process we become hard to recognize because we are shadows of our former selves.) I didn't want to stand in the path, so I moved up to the highest row of seating available which was the third row.) (Jesus said after 3 days I will rise again. The three rows could also represents bearing the 30-, 60-, and 100-fold fruit of Christ.)  There were planks set into the steep bank of a hill that was very hard dirt. The ceiling of this area was barely above the highest seating space. I sat quietly waiting to hear the voice of the person that walked in with me so that I could locate them and sit with them, but I awakened not knowing what had happened to the person that walked in with me. (He is still there in spirit with us even in our darkest moments.) … There were people scattered about sitting on the rows of planks, but the area was far from full. (The first fruits harvest is small. Few are taught the crucified life or Jesus' message of death to self.) I received by faith at random Jeremiah 4:6 for this dream.  My finger was on the words, "flee for safety". This chapter is very fitting for these days. Jeremiah 4:6 Set up a standard toward Zion (the Bride):  flee for safety, stay not; for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction. (Those who are dead to self, like the first fruits Bride, are safe from judgment.) The Lord brought to my attention the parable of the sower in Matthew 13.  Thank you, Father, for the seed sown upon good ground, for those who hear the word and understand it; that they may bear much fruit and bring glory and honor to Your Name. In Jesus Name, Amen.   A Study on Ephesians David Eells - 3/24/23 Eph 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, to the saints that are at Ephesus, and the faithful in Christ Jesus: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ: (Notice that every spiritual blessing, including grace and peace are available to them who abide IN heavenly places, which are IN Jesus.) 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before him in love: (Notice that He chose us to be holy and without blemish and the `doing of it is IN Him? How do we access this? Primarily by Faith, which is "believing we have received" as Jesus commanded in Mark 11:24. - 2Co 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit.  Secondarily by manifestation.  1Jo 1:4-6 and these things we write that our joy may be made full. 5 And this is the message which we have heard from him and announce unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: … 1Jo 2:24 As for you, let that abide in you which ye heard from the beginning. If that which ye heard from the beginning abide in you, ye also shall abide in the Son, and in the Father.)  Eph 1:5 having foreordained us (the faithful saints are addresses in verse 1) unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, (First we are sons by faith - Gal 3:26 For ye are all sons of God, through faith, in Christ Jesus.  As we walk with Jesus we manifest Him - Pro 29:21 He that delicately bringeth up his servant from a child Shall have him become a son at the last. Rom 8:19  For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the revealing (or manifestation) of the sons of God. Rom 8:23 And not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.  We first manifest sonship in spirit and soul. When we are first changed, it is our spirit that is born again. The soul, which is the mind, will, and emotions, is born again as we obey that spirit and walk in obedience to truth as Peter said.  1Pe 1:22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in your obedience to the truth unto unfeigned love of the brethren, love one another from the heart fervently: 23 having been begotten again (in soul), not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God, which liveth and abideth. (Notice the incorruptible seed that births our soul is obedience to the Word. This born-again soul is Jesus' mind, will, and emotions.) But the born-again body is still to be redeemed and it will be different according to each persons works. 1Co 15:35 But some one will say, How are the dead raised? and with what manner of body do they come? ... 41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differeth from another star in glory. 42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption. We are creating this new body now by our works. 2Co 5:1-4 For we know that if the earthly house of our tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens. 2 For verily in this we groan, longing to be clothed upon with our habitation which is from heaven: (We notice here that our new house is our new body, and it is also described as a garment and they are different. The Bride has a lampros or radiant garment while those invited to the marriage have only a leukos or white garment in Rev 19. And we are to hate the garment spotted by the flesh, meaning fleshly works in Jude 1:23.  Eph 1:3 if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. (I.e., without righteous works only our sinful flesh is seen.) 4 For indeed we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened; not for that we would be unclothed (I.e. The body dies), but that we would be clothed upon, that what is mortal may be swallowed up of life…. 10 For we must all be made manifest before the judgment-seat (Literally “footprint tribunal” I.e., did you walk as he walked; meaning bearing your cross?) of Christ; that each one may receive the (new) body, according to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Again - 10 For we must all be made manifest before the “footprint tribunal” of Christ; that each one may receive through the body (Other versions say, “the things done in the body” but the Numeric has “through the body”.), according to what he hath done, whether good or bad. (So, we will receive a body according to how much we abide in Him in our works.) Eph 1:6 to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved: (Notice: All grace for everything is given as we abide “in” Jesus. So how do we receive power from Him to abide in Him? By Faith we see and speak of ourselves as the finished product because Jesus made reconciliation, which word means, an exchange of His life for ours at the cross.) Gal 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith, which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me.  2Co 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit. So, it is a necessity to abide IN Jesus to bear His fruit. Joh 15:1-8 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. 2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh it away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he cleanseth it, that it may bear more fruit. 3 Already ye are clean because of the word which I have spoken unto you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; so neither can ye, except ye abide in me. 5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for apart from me ye can do nothing. 6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. (This is the 3 of 4 that fall away) 7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done unto you. 8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; and so shall ye be my disciples.  People who do their own thing and make up their own rules are not abiding IN Him and do not enter into His grace.  How do we abide IN Him? 1Jn 2:24 As for you, let that abide in you which ye heard from the beginning. If that which ye heard from the beginning abide in you, ye also shall abide in the Son, and in the Father. 1Jn 2:6 he that saith he abideth in him ought himself also to walk even as he walked. (That walk is as a disciple; a learner and follower.) 2Jn 1:9-11 Whosoever goeth onward and abideth not in the teaching of Christ, hath not God: he that abideth in the teaching, the same hath both the Father and the Son. 10 If any one cometh unto you, and bringeth not this teaching, receive him not into your house, and give him no greeting: 11 for he that giveth him greeting partaketh in his evil works. (This Ephesians text continues to speak of what is given to us as we abide IN Jesus.) 7 in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, (Notice the fullness of our redemption and forgiveness of our sins is ours as we abide IN Him through faith in His Blood. We get a spiritual transfusion and exchange of our old sinful blood to His righteous blood.)   Eph 1:8 which he made to abound toward us IN all wisdom and prudence, (As we prudently seek His wisdom, redemption will manifest in us.) 9 making known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him (His purposes will be established in us as we know His will.) 10 unto a dispensation of the fulness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth; in him, I say, (If we walk by faith, when our time is up we will be completely IN Christ.) 11 in whom also we were made a heritage, having been foreordained according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his will; (As we abide in Him we become His heritage as He purposed.) 12 to the end that we should be unto the praise of his glory, we who had before hoped in Christ: (As our hope is in Him and not the world, He will receive praise and glory.) 13 in whom ye also, having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation (We were chosen in Him to have ears to hear.) , --in whom, having also believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, (Look at those who do not receive the Holy Spirit as commanded and demonstrated in Acts. They are blind to truth and power which the Holy Spirit is to lead us in.)  14 which is an earnest of our inheritance, unto the redemption of God's own possession, unto the praise of his glory. (The Holy Spirit is our down payment to lead us in all that God has for us so we may bring glory to Him.)  15 For this cause I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is among you, and the love which ye show toward all the saints, (Will others hear of our faith and Love? I hope so.) 16 cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him; (If Paul can pray for the saints to have this most powerful of gifts, we can pray for it too. Give this to us Lord!)  18 having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, ("Calling" here means an invitation. Faith will come to us when we know that we are invited to partake of all that is Christ and all that He has, just as we see Him in the mirror.) 19 and what the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to that working of the strength of his might (His power to bring to pass what we believe is exceedingly greater than we know. We must become as a child in trusting our Father.)  20 which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places, (His exceeding power raised the bodies of the saints from dust to show themselves to the people. And He still raises the dead today.) (Jesus is:) 21 far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: 22 and he put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all. (And here we see that this dominion over all has been put under the very lowest member of His body, His feet, while He remains the brains of the outfit. This is why we need a revelation of His exceeding great power to us who believe.) Eph 2:1 And you did he make alive, when ye were dead through your trespasses and sins, (Now that we are alive from the dead and a member of His Body, He can do all things through us. Let us not doubt.) 2 wherein ye once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the powers of the air, of the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience; (The sons of disobedience are the ones who are disobedient. They may even make excuses for this like once saved always saved or that they are just sinners saved by grace But they dont want to accept that grace saves from sin because they love it.) 3 among whom we also all once lived in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest:— (But many so called “Christians” are still in this corrupt state and they want to think it's normal. What a shock they will receive when they meet their maker to find out he isn't God.  Pray for them to wake up saints.) 4 but God, being rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace have ye been saved), (1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. We are now dead to sin but alive with His life for we are His body and He lives in His body.)  6 and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places, IN Christ Jesus: (Our heavenly place is to abide in Him. We are told of a great falling away of the stars of heaven who lose their position to sit next to him. Why? Because they were given everything they needed to overcome, and they refused it.  The promises are given to the overcomers only.)  Rev 2:7 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. To him that overcometh, to him will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.  …11 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.  …17 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. To him that overcometh, to him will I give of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and upon the stone a new name written, which no one knoweth but he that receiveth it.  …26 And he that overcometh, and he that keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give authority over the nations: … 3:21 He that overcometh, I will give to him to sit down with me in my throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father in his throne.  Eph 2:7 that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus: (All was freely given and should be freely received and freely shared as Jesus taught us.)  8 for by grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not of works (of man), that no man should glory. (All of the called have "been saved" from every curse as is said in Gal 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. The curse of sin and death has been dealt with and is no longer the problem, which is unbelief.  Some say they have believed but it is "in vain" for their faith is in the traditions of men.  1Co 15:1 Now I make known unto you brethren, the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye received, wherein also ye stand, 2 by which also ye are saved, if ye hold fast the word which I preached unto you, except ye believed in vain. (This means believed for nothing and got nothing.) 2Co 6:1 And working together with him we entreat also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. (Meaning grace was given but not acted on.) Eph 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God afore prepared that we should walk in them. (These are obviously not man's works but God's work through man who believes Him.) 11 Wherefore remember, that once ye, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called Circumcision, in the flesh, made by hands; And Rom 2:28-29 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh: 29 but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.) Eph 2:12 that ye were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now IN Christ Jesus ye that once were far off are made nigh in the blood of Christ. And Rom 9:8 That is, it is not the children of the flesh that are children of God; but the children of the promise are reckoned for a seed. … 26 And it shall be, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, There shall they be called sons of the living God.  27 And Isaiah crieth concerning Israel, If the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that shall be saved.  Rom 11:25-26 For I would not, brethren, have you ignorant of this mystery, lest ye be wise in your own conceits, that a hardening in part hath befallen Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in; 26 and so all Israel shall be saved (Notice that “all Israel" here is both Jew and Gentile joined in one new covenant.): even as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer; He shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:   Eph 2:14 For he is our peace, who made both one, and brake down the middle wall of partition, 15 having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; that he might create in himself of the two one new man, so making peace; (Notice there is only one covenant, and it makes us both one. The Law brought enmity and division but grace through faith makes one of all ethnicities) 16 and might reconcile them both in one body unto God through the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: …  20 being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief corner stone; 21 in whom each several building, fitly framed together, groweth into a holy temple in the Lord; 22 in whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of God in the Spirit. ... Eph 3:14 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, that ye may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man; 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith (If Paul can pray for this strengthening of God's Spirit so that Christ would live in us, so can we.); to the end that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled unto all the fulness of God. 20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, 21 unto him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus unto all generations for ever and ever. Amen.  4:1 I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beseech you to walk worthily of the calling wherewith ye were called, 2 with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; 3 giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. … 7 But unto each one of us was the grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ. ... 11 And he gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; (The Man-child reformers are about to do what Jesus did; Send Apostles to raise up the 5 fold ministries.)  12 for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ: 13 till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a fullgrown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: (Jesus will walk the earth again in His fullness in His body.) 14 that we may be no longer children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error;  ... 17 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye no longer walk as the Gentiles also walk, in the vanity of their mind,(And also the non Spirit filled apostate Churches)  18 being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their heart; ... 22 that ye put away, as concerning your former manner of life, the old man, that waxeth corrupt after the lusts of deceit; 23 and that ye be renewed in the spirit of your mind, (With the mind of Christ which is the Word.) 24 and put on the new man, that after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth. 25 Wherefore, putting away falsehood, speak ye truth each one with his neighbor: for we are members one of another.  26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: 27 neither give place to the devil. ...29 Let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth, but such as is good for edifying as the need may be, that it may give grace to them that hear. 30 And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in whom ye were sealed unto the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and railing, be put away from you, with all malice: (We know that this leads to faction especially in these days when God is separating the tares from the wheat.) 32 and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, even as God also in Christ forgave you. 5:1 Be ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children; 2 and walk in love, even as Christ also loved you, and gave himself up for us, an offering, and a sacrifice to God for an odor of a sweet smell.  3 But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as becometh saints; 4 nor filthiness, nor foolish talking, or jesting, which are not befitting: but rather giving of thanks. 5 For this ye know of a surety, that no fornicator (A broad term for different forms of sexual sin), nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Let no man deceive you with empty words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Be not ye therefore partakers with them; ... 11 and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even reprove them; 12 for the things which are done by them in secret it is a shame even to speak of.  ...18 And be not drunken with wine, wherein is riot, but be filled with the Spirit; 19 speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; 20 giving thanks always for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; 21 subjecting yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ. 22 Wives, be in subjection unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, being himself the saviour of the body. 24 But as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives also be to their husbands in everything.  25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself up for it; 26 that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word, 27 that he might present the church to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish...... 6:1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. 2 Honor thy father and mother (which is the first commandment with promise), 3 that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. 4 And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but nurture them in the chastening and admonition of the Lord.  ... 10 Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.  13 Wherefore take up the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand. 14 Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 withal taking up the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: 18 with all prayer and supplication praying at all seasons in the Spirit, and watching thereunto in all perseverance and supplication for all the saints, ... 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Recent increases in the Fed's balance sheet may not have the same impact on money supply, growth and equities as in previous cycles.----- Transcript -----Welcome to Thoughts on the Market. I'm Mike Wilson, Chief Investment Officer and Chief U.S. Equity Strategist for Morgan Stanley. Along with my colleagues, bringing you a variety of perspectives, I'll be talking about the latest trends in the financial marketplace. It's Monday, April 3rd at 11:30 a.m. in New York. So let's get after it. Over the past month, market participants have been focused on how the government will deal with the stress in the banking system and whether the economy can withstand this latest shock. After a rough couple of weeks, especially for regional banks, the major indices appear to be shrugging off these risks. Many are interpreting the sharp increase in bank reserves as another form of quantitative easing and are exhibiting the Pavlovian response that such programs are always good for equity prices. As we discussed in prior podcasts, we do not think that's the right interpretation of this latest increase in the Fed's balance sheet. In our view, all bank reserves are not created equal. True money supply as a function of reserves and the velocity of money which is difficult to measure in real time. As a comparison, inflation did not appear after the first wave of quantitative easing used during the great financial crisis because the velocity of money simultaneously collapsed. This was despite the fact that the percentage increase in the Fed's balance sheet dwarfed what we experienced during COVID. The primary difference was that the increase in reserves during the great financial crisis was simply filling holes left on bank balance sheets from the housing crisis. Therefore, the increase in reserves did not lead to a material increase in true money supply in the real economy. In contrast, during COVID, the increase in reserves are pushed directly into the economy via stimulus checks, PPP loans and other programs to keep the economy from shutting down. However, these fiscal programs were overdone and the result was money supply moved sharply higher because the velocity of money remained stable and even increased slightly. During this latest increase in Fed balance sheet reserves, the total liabilities in the US banking system have continued to fall. This suggests to us that the velocity of money is falling quite rapidly, more than offsetting the increase in bank reserves. In fact, these bank liabilities are falling at a rate of 7% year-over-year, the biggest decline in more than 60 years. Even during the Great Financial Crisis, money supply growth never went into negative territory. The kind of contraction we are witnessing today suggests this is not anything like the QE programs experienced during COVID or the 2009 to 2013 period. Secondarily, it also means that both economic and earnings growth are likely to remain under pressure until money supply growth reverses. This leads me to the second part of this podcast. Year to date, major U.S. stock indices have performed well, led by technology heavy NASDAQ. This is partially due to the snap back from such poor performance last year, led by the NASDAQ. But it's also the view that unlevered, high quality growth stocks are immune from the potential oncoming credit crunch. It's important to note that the rally to date in U.S. stocks has been very narrow, with just eight stocks accounting for 80% of the entire returns in the NASDAQ 100. Meanwhile, only ten stocks have accounted for 95% of the entire returns in the S&P 500, with all ten of those stocks being technology-related businesses. Such an erroneous performance is known as bad breadth, and it typically doesn't bode well for future prices. The counterargument is that technology already went through its own recession last year and it's taken its medicine now with respect to cost reductions and layoffs. Therefore, these stocks can continue to recover and carry the overall market, given their size. We would caution on such conclusions, given the increased risk of a credit crunch that suggests the risk of a broader economic recession is far from extinguished. Recessions are bad for technology companies, which are generally pro cyclical businesses. Instead, we continue to prefer more defensive sectors like consumer staples and health care.Thanks for listening. If you enjoy Thoughts on the Market, please take a moment to rate and review us on the Apple Podcast app. It helps more people to find the show.

A new research paper was published on the cover of Aging (Aging-US) Volume 15, Issue 6, entitled, “Cellular senescence and disrupted proteostasis induced by myotube atrophy are prevented with low-dose metformin and leucine cocktail.” Aging coincides with the accumulation of senescent cells within skeletal muscle that produce inflammatory products, known as the senescence-associated secretory phenotype, but the relationship of senescent cells to muscle atrophy is unclear. Previously, researchers found that a metformin + leucine (MET+LEU) treatment had synergistic effects in aged mice to improve skeletal muscle structure and function during disuse atrophy. In this new study, researchers Jonathan J. Petrocelli, Naomi M.M.P. de Hart, Marisa J. Lang, Elena M. Yee, Patrick J. Ferrara, Dennis K. Fix, Amandine Chaix, Katsuhiko Funai, and Micah J. Drummond from the University of Utah aimed to determine the mechanisms by which MET+LEU exhibits muscle atrophy protection in vitro and if this occurs through cellular senescence. “The purpose of this study was to identify the skeletal muscle cell-intrinsic effects of MET+LEU during an atrophy stimulus. Secondarily, we sought to determine the possible mechanisms underlying MET+LEU action on skeletal muscle cells with an emphasis on cellular senescence.” C2C12 myoblasts differentiated into myotubes were used to determine MET+LEU mechanisms during atrophy. Additionally, aged mouse single myofibers and older human donor primary myoblasts were individually isolated to determine the translational potential of MET+LEU on muscle cells. MET+LEU (25 + 125 μM) treatment increased myotube differentiation and prevented myotube atrophy. Low concentration (0.1 + 0.5 μM) MET+LEU had unique effects to prevent muscle atrophy and increase transcripts related to protein synthesis and decrease transcripts related to protein breakdown. Myotube atrophy resulted in dysregulated proteostasis that was reversed with MET+LEU and individually with proteasome inhibition (MG-132). Inflammatory and cellular senescence transcriptional pathways and respective transcripts were increased following myotube atrophy yet reversed with MET+LEU treatment. Dasatinib + quercetin (D+Q) senolytic prevented myotube atrophy similar to MET+LEU. Finally, MET+LEU prevented loss in myotube size in alternate in vitro models of muscle atrophy as well as in aged myofibers while, in human primary myotubes, MET+LEU prevented reductions in myonuclei fusion. These data support that MET+LEU has skeletal muscle cell-autonomous properties to prevent atrophy by reversing senescence and improving proteostasis. “In conclusion, this study provides evidence of a possible link between cellular senescence and disrupted proteostasis that is targeted by MET+LEU in muscle cells to reverse the muscle atrophy phenotype.” DOI: https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.204600 Corresponding Author: Micah J. Drummond - micah.drummond@hsc.utah.edu Keywords: skeletal muscle atrophy, inflammation, senolytic, AMPK, protein breakdown About Aging-US Launched in 2009, Aging-US publishes papers of general interest and biological significance in all fields of aging research and age-related diseases, including cancer—and now, with a special focus on COVID-19 vulnerability as an age-dependent syndrome. Topics in Aging-US go beyond traditional gerontology, including, but not limited to, cellular and molecular biology, human age-related diseases, pathology in model organisms, signal transduction pathways (e.g., p53, sirtuins, and PI-3K/AKT/mTOR, among others), and approaches to modulating these signaling pathways. Visit our website at https://www.Aging-US.com​​ and connect with us: Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/AgingUS/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/AgingJrnl Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/agingjrnl/ YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@AgingJournal LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/aging/ MEDIA@IMPACTJOURNALS.COM

As markets look to recent bank failures, how are valuations for both stocks and bonds likely to change with this risk to growth?----- Transcript -----Welcome to Thoughts on the Market. I'm Mike Wilson, Chief Investment Officer and Chief U.S. Equity Strategist for Morgan Stanley. Along with my colleagues, bringing you a variety of perspectives, I'll be talking about the latest trends in the financial marketplace. It's Monday, March 20th at 11 a.m. in New York. So let's get after it. Over the past few weeks, the markets have fixated on the rapid failure of two major banks that, up until very recently, have been viewed as safe depository institutions. The reason for their demise is crystal clear in hindsight, and not that surprising when you see the interest rate risk these banks were taking with their deposits, and the fact that the Fed has raised rates by five percentage points in the past year. The uninsured deposit backstop put in place by the Fed and FDIC will help to alleviate further major bank runs, but it won't stop the already tight lending standards across the banking industry from getting even tighter. It also won't prevent the cost of deposits from rising, thereby pressuring net interest margins. In short, the risk of a credit crunch has increased materially. Bond markets have exhibited volatility around these developments as market participants realize the ramifications of tighter credit. The yield curve has steepened by 60 basis points in a matter of days, something seen only a few times in history and usually the bond market's way of saying recession risk is now more elevated. An inversion of the curve typically signals a recession within 12 months, but the real risk starts when it re-steepens from the trough. Meanwhile, the European Central Bank decided to raise rates by 50 basis points last week, despite Europe's own banking issues and sluggish economy. The German bund curve seemed to disagree with that decision and steepened by 50 basis points, signaling greater recession risk like in the U.S. If growth is likely to slow further from the incremental tightening in the U.S. banking system and the bond market seems to be supporting that conclusion, why on earth did U.S. stocks rally last week? We think it had to do with the growing view that the Fed and FDIC bail out of depositors is a form of quantitative easing and provides a catalyst for stocks to go higher. While the $300 billion increase in Fed balance sheet reserves last week does re liquefy the banking system, it does little in terms of creating new money that can flow into the economy or markets, at least beyond a brief period of, say, a day or a few weeks. Secondarily, the fact that the Fed is lending, not buying, also matters. If a bank borrows from the Fed, it's expanding its own balance sheet, making leverage ratios more binding. When the Fed buys a security outright, the seller of that security has more balance sheet space for renewed expansion. That is not the case in this situation, in our view. As of Wednesday last week, the Fed was lending depository institutions $300 billion more than it was the prior week. Half was primary credit through the discount window, which is often viewed as temporary borrowing and unlikely to translate into new credit creation for the economy. The other half was a loan to the bridge the FDIC created for the failed banks. It's unlikely that any of these reserves will transmit to the economy as bank deposits normally do. Instead, we believe the overall velocity of money in the banking system is likely to fall sharply and more than offset any increase in reserves, especially given the temporary emergency nature of these funds. Over the past month, the correlation between stocks and bonds has reversed and is now negative. In other words, stocks go down when rates fall now and vice versa. This is in sharp contrast to most of the past year when stocks are more worried about inflation, the Fed's reaction to it and rates going higher. Instead, the path of stocks is now about growth and our belief that earnings forecasts are 15 to 20% too high has increased. From an equity market perspective, the events of the past week mean that credit availability is decreasing for a wide swath of the economy, which may be the catalyst that finally convinces market participants that valuations are way too high. We've been waiting patiently for this acknowledgment because with it comes the real buying opportunity, which remains several months away. Thanks for listening. If you enjoy Thoughts on the Market, please take a moment to rate and review us on the Apple Podcasts app. It helps more people to find the show.

Banking news and other market pressures are leading some depositors to move funds from traditional banks to higher-yielding securities. How will this affect economic growth and equity prices?----- Transcript -----Welcome to Thoughts on the Market. I'm Mike Wilson, Chief Investment Officer and Chief U.S. Equity Strategist for Morgan Stanley. Along with my colleagues, bringing you a variety of perspectives, I'll be talking about the latest trends in the financial marketplace. It's Monday, March 13th at 11 a.m. in New York. So let's get after it. The speed and size of the Silicon Valley bank wind down over the last week was startling to many investors, even those who have been negative on the stock for months on the basis of exactly what transpired- a classic mismatch between assets and liabilities and risk taking beyond what a typical depositor does. To be clear about our view, we do not think there's a systemic issue plaguing the entire banking system, like in 2007 to 2009, particularly with the FDIC decision to backstop uninsured deposits. However, last week's events are likely to have a negative impact on economic growth at a time when growth is already waning in many parts of the economy. Rather than do a forensic autopsy of what happened at Silicon Valley and other banks, I will instead focus my comments and what it may mean for equity prices more broadly. First, I would remind listeners that Fed policy works with long and variable lags. Second, the pace of Fed tightening over the past year is unprecedented when one considers the Fed has also been engaged in aggressive quantitative tightening. Third, the focus on market based measures of financial conditions, like stock and bond prices, may have lulled both investors and the Fed itself into thinking policy tightening had not yet gone far enough. Meanwhile, more traditional measures like the yield curve have been flashing warnings for the past 6 months, closing last week near its lowest point of the cycle. From a bank's perspective, such an inversion usually means it's more difficult to make new profitable loans, and new credit is how money supply expands. However, over the past year, bank funding costs have not kept pace with the higher Fed funds rate, allowing banks to create credit at profitable net interest margins. In short, most banks have been paying well below market rates, like T-bills, because depositors have been slow to realize they can get much better rates elsewhere. But that's changed recently, with depositors deciding to pull their money from traditional banks and placing it in higher yielding securities like money markets, T-bills and the like. Ultimately, banks will likely decide to raise the interest rate they pay depositors, but that means lower profits and lower loan supply. Even before this recent exodus of deposits, loan officers have been tightening their lending standards. In our view, such tightening is likely to become even more prevalent, and that poses another headwind for money supply and consequently economic and earnings growth. In other words, it's now harder to hold the view that growth will continue to hold up in the face of the fastest Fed tightening cycle in modern times. Secondarily, the margin deterioration across most industries we've been discussing for months was already getting worse. Any top line shortfall relative to expectations from tighter money supply will only exacerbate this negative operating leverage dynamic. The bottom line is that Fed policy works with long and variable lags. Many of the key variables used by the Fed and investors to judge whether Fed policy changes are having their desired effect are backward looking- things like employment and inflation metrics. Forward looking survey data, like consumer and corporate confidence, are often better at telling us what to expect rather than what's currently happening. On that score the picture is pessimistic about where growth is likely headed, especially for earnings. Rather than a random or idiosyncratic shock, we view last week's events as just one more supporting factor for our negative earnings growth outlook. In short, Fed policy is starting to bite and it's unlikely to reverse, even if the Fed were to pause its rate hikes or quantitative tightening. Instead, we think the die is likely cast for further earnings disappointments relative to consensus and company expectations, which means lower equity prices before this bear market is over. Thanks for listening. If you enjoy Thoughts on the Market, please take a moment to rate and review us on the Apple Podcast app. It helps more people to find the show.

Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2023.03.02.530889v1?rss=1 Authors: Yu, V., Hernandez-Morato, I., Brenner-Morton, S. L., Pitman, M. J. Abstract: Proprioception plays a crucial role in laryngeal function. Further, dysfunctional proprioception likely contributes to disorders such as laryngeal dystonia, dysphagia and vocal fold paresis. Despite this, the physiology of laryngeal proprioception is not well-understood. Controversy remains over whether canonical proprioceptive organs, like muscle spindles (MS) even exist in the intrinsic laryngeal muscles (ILM). Vesicular Glutamate Transporter 1 (VGLUT1) expression has been described in the sensory afferents of MS. This study's primary aim is to determine whether the ILM contain MS using VGLUT1. This is a novel approach, as prior studies have relied on morphology and myosin composition to study this question. Secondarily, we describe the pattern of VGLUT1 expression in the rat larynx, Larynges of 62 Sprague-Dawley rats distributed across 5 age groups (P3, P8, P11, P14-15, and adult), were sectioned and immunostained for VGLUT1 and beta-tubulin III. Other markers (S46, GNAT3, PLC{beta}2, S100b, CGRP) were used to further characterize identified afferent innervation. Of 62 rats, MS were identified in the lateral thyroarytenoid muscles of just three P8 rats, and no golgi tendon organs (GTO) were seen. VGLUT1-positive intramuscular receptor-like entities were observed ILM, and VGLUT1-positive nerve endings were observed in the laryngeal mucosa, concentrated around the arytenoid cartilage. Employing VGLUT1 immunostaining, this study shows that rat intrinsic laryngeal muscles rarely express MS and do not express GTO. This leaves open the possibility that the larynx exhibits a unique proprioceptive apparatus. VGLUT1-positive intramuscular and mucosal structures provide candidates for an alternative system. Further defining the role of these sensory organs will increase our understanding of vocal fold function and ultimately lead to better treatment of vocal fold disorders. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info Podcast created by Paper Player, LLC

Tanci & Chandler provide you with a NEW meditation series sporadically incorporated into their podcast episodes. Why meditation? Meditation helps humans experience calmness and inner peace, it is said to lower stress and aid the body's health. Secondarily, our goal for you is to strengthen your mind and your thoughts, improve your sleep, boost your energy and improve your attention and focus. This simple, yet somewhat challenging, practice can do nothing but help us all! Join us in this series. BOSSY TSHIRTS ARE LIVE HERE: CLICK HERE TO SHOP If you love our podcast, please consider rating and reviewing our show! This helps us make bigger impact and continue doing what we are doing! Scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars and select "write a review" and let us know what you love about the episode or podcast in general! Also, if you'd like to follow Tanci & Chandler more closely, below are the links to their social media: Tanci's Instagram & Chandler's Instagram The bossY Baddies Instagram Page

As focus begins to shift from inflation and interest rates to a possible oncoming earnings recession, what has the market already priced in? And what should investors be looking at as risk premiums begin to rise?----- Transcript -----Welcome to Thoughts on the Market. I'm Mike Wilson, Chief Investment Officer and Chief U.S. Equity Strategist for Morgan Stanley. Along with my colleagues, bringing you a variety of perspectives, I'll be talking about the latest trends in the financial marketplace. It's Monday, December 19th, at 11 a.m. in New York. So let's get after it. While many commentators blame last week's selloff in stocks on the Fed, we think it was more about the equity market looking ahead to the oncoming earnings recession that we think is getting worse. The evidence for this conclusion is last week's drop in valuations, which was driven exclusively by a rising equity risk premium as 10 year yields remain flat. In fact, since mid-November, the equity risk premium has risen 50 basis points to 2.5%. While still very low relative to where we think it will eventually settle out next year, it's a good step in the right direction that tells us the equity market is at least contemplating the earnings risk. Until now, all of the bear market valuation compression has been about inflation, the Fed's reaction to it and the rise in interest rates. While we called for the end of the tactical rally two weeks ago, last week's price action provided the technical reversal to confirm it. Specifically, the softer than expected inflation report on Tuesday drove the equity markets up sharply in the morning, only to fail at the key resistance levels we highlighted two weeks ago. More importantly, the price action left a negative tactical pattern that looks like the mere image of the pattern back in October, when the September inflation report came in hotter than expected. We made our tactical rally call on the back of that positive technical action in October and last week provides the perfect bookend to our trade. Seasonally, the setup is now bearish too. At the end of every calendar quarter, many asset managers play a game of chasing markets higher or lower to protect or enhance their relative year to date performance. Most years, the equity markets tend to drift higher into year end, as liquidity dries up, asset managers are able to push prices higher of the stocks they own. However, in down years like 2022, the ability and/or willingness to do that is lower, which reduces the odds of a year end rally lasting all the way until December 31st. This is the other reason we pulled the plug on our tactical rally call. With last week's technical reversal so clear, we think the set up is now more bearish than bullish. Meanwhile, we are feeling more confident about our 2023 forecast for S&P 500 earnings per share of $195. This remains well below both the bottoms up consensus of $231 and the top down forecasts of $215. In fact, the leading macro survey data has continued to weaken. I bring this up because we often hear from clients that everyone knows earnings are too high next year, and therefore the market has priced it. However, we recall hearing similar things in August of 2008, the last time the spread between our earnings model and the street consensus was this wide. The good news is that we don't expect a balance sheet recession next year or systemic financial risk. Nevertheless, the earnings recession by itself could be similar to what transpired in 2008 and 09. The main message of today's podcast is don't assume the market prices this negative of an earnings outcome until it happens. Secondarily, if our earnings forecast proves to be correct, the price declines for equities will be much worse than what most investors are expecting. Based on our conversations, the consensus view on the buy side is now that we won't make new lows on the S&P 500 next year, but will instead defend the October levels or the 200 week moving average, approximately 3500 to 3600 on the S&P 500. We remain decidedly in the 3000 to 3300 camp with a bias toward the low end given our view on earnings. With the year end Santa Claus rally now fading, there is reason to believe the decline from last week is the beginning of the move lower into the first quarter for stocks that we've been expecting, and when a more sustainable low is likely to be made. Thanks for listening. If you enjoy Thoughts on the Market, please take a moment to rate and review us on the Apple Podcast app. It helps more people to find the show.

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: What Rethink Priorities General Longtermism Team Did in 2022, and Updates in Light of the Current Situation, published by Linch on December 14, 2022 on The Effective Altruism Forum. Summary Rethink Priorities' General Longtermism team, led by me, has existed for just under a year. In this post, I summarize our work so far. Our initial theory of change centered around: Primarily, facilitating the creation of faster and better longtermist “megaprojects” (though in practice, we focused more on somewhat scalable longtermist projects). Secondarily, improving strategy clarity about which “intermediate goals” longtermists should pursue (though in practice, we focused more opportunistically on miscellaneous high-impact research questions). (more) We had ~5 Full-time Equivalents (FTE) on average (a total of 54.5 FTE months of research work up until the end of November) and spent ~$721,000. (more) (Shareable) Outputs and outcomes of our work this year include: I encouraged the creation of and supported the Rethink Priorities' Special Projects team, which provides fiscal sponsorship to external entrepreneurial projects. Marie and Renan (based on prior work by Renan, Max, and me) made a simple model for prioritizing between longtermist projects and identifying ones that seemed especially promising to research further. (more) Our fellows and research assistant (Emma, Jam, Joe, Max, Marie) completed 13 research “speedruns” (~10h shallow dives) into specific longtermist projects. (more) Our fellows and research assistant (Emma, Jam, Joe, Max, Marie) completed further research on several longtermist projects, including air sterilization techniques, whistleblowing, the AI safety recruiting pipeline, and infrastructure to support independent researchers. (more) Renan cofounded and ran Condor Camp, a project that aims to find and engage world-class talent in Brazil for longtermist causes while also field-building longtermism and supporting EA community building in the country. (more) Ben cofounded and ran Pathfinder, a project to help mid-career professionals to find the highest impact work (more) I initiated a founder search for multiple promising projects, including: Shelters and other civilizational resilience work (resulting in recommending grants to Tereza Fildrova, who helped organize the SHELTER weekend, and Ulrik Horn, who is exploiting his fit for work in this area). (more) An early warning forecasting center (resulting in working with Alex D to explore founding a project in this area). (more) Ben researched nanotechnology strategy and made a database of resources relevant to this area. (more) Separately from my work at Rethink Priorities, I was a guest fund manager for EA Funds' Long-Term Future Fund, and a regranter for the Future Fund. (more) The recent changes to the EA funding situation have significantly affected our team's strategy, in that megaprojects now seem less relevant, and in that new research questions might have become especially important in light of the FTX crash. (more) However, I still think it's very plausible that we continue to focus on entrepreneurial longtermist projects as our main research area. We're currently in the process of reorienting and setting our strategy for 2023. (more) You can help our team by contributing ideas for highly impactful research projects, funding us, expressing interest in working with us, and giving feedback on the work and plans outlined in this post. (more) Preamble I've led the new General Longtermism team at Rethink Priorities for slightly under a year. Recent changes in the EA funding landscape have had a large impact on our work. I've decided that now is a good time to write a detailed summary of our work so far, as well as how recent events have affected our work. The primary purpose of this article is to be informa...

Welcome to the Unchanging Word Bible study. In our lesson today, John 11:17-28, Jesus is approached by Martha, the sister of Lazarus who had died. Dr. Mitchell explains the attitude of Martha as she speaks with Jesus. In view of her faith that God would raise Lazarus again on the last day Jesus made a declaration of His Present Deity. He said to her, I AM the resurrection and the life, — now. So, remember, that the resurrection is First of all a Person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Secondarily, the resurrection is an event. Jesus is today the resurrection and the life. This Jesus, whom God raised physically from the grave, is Lord and Christ. Because of His resurrection, we who know this Jesus, have a great hope now, don't we? Let's join Dr. Mitchell as he explores John 11 verses 17 thru 28 here on the Unchanging Word. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/unchanging-word/message

This week we talk a little more about the FBI and other alphabet labeled organizations. We are touching on what is going on on with the president, and also wondering if it time to invoke the 25th Amendment. Secondarily, should it be used back to back with Biden and Harris?   Fresno has no spring and no fall; it's heat to freeze in the Central Valley. Let's talk about it and more on this Throat Punch Thursday!    Do you want us to mention a specific topic? Leave a comment or find us on Facebook or Instagram and send us a DM.   This podcast was produced and edited by the Dirt Sailor duo. Mark and Shannon are a father/daughter team who both served in the United States Navy. This production is protected by US Copyright. All items are discussed as commentary/opinion.

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Some ideas for epistles to the AI ethicists, published by Charlie Steiner on September 14, 2022 on The AI Alignment Forum. Some papers, or ideas for papers, that I'd loved to see published in ethics journals like Minds and Machines or Ethics and Information Technology. I'm probably going to submit one of these to a 2023 AI ethics conference myself. Why should we do this? Because we want today's grad students to see that the ethical problems of superhuman AI are a cool topic that they can publish a cool paper about. And we want to (marginally) raise the waterline for thinking about future AI, nudging the AI ethics discourse towards more matured views of the challenges of AI. Secondarily, it would be good to leverage the existing skillsets of some ethicists for AI safety work, particularly those already working on AI governance. And having an academic forum where talking about AI safety is normalized bolsters other efforts to work on AI safety in academia. The Ideas: Explain the basic ideas of AI safety, and why to take them seriously. Iason Gabriel already had a pretty good paper like this. But it's plausible that, right now, what the ethics discourse needs is more basic explanations of why AI safety is a thing at all. This paper might start out by making a case that superhuman AI is going to change the world, likely in the next 10-60 years (definitely unintuitive to many, but there are AI Impacts surveys and recent results to illustrate the point). Then the basic arguments that superhuman AI will not be automatically benevolent (easy rhetorical trick is to call it "superhuman technology," everyone knows technology is bad). Then the basic arguments that to get things to go well, the AI has to know a whole lot about what humans want (and use that knowledge the way we want). One issue with this might be that it presents the problem, but doesn't really point people towards solutions (this may be a problem that can be solved with quick citations). It also doesn't really motivate why this is an ethics problem. It also doesn't explain why we want the solution to the key "ethics-genre" problems to use a technical understanding of the AI, rather than a human- or society-centric view. A more specific defense of the validity of transformative-AI-focused thinking as a valid use of ethicists' time. The core claim is that getting AIs to want want good things and not bad things is an unsolved ethics problem. Ethics, not engineering, because the question isn't "how do we implement some obvious standard," the question is "what is even a good standard in the first place?" But almost as important are secondary claims about what actual progress on this question looks like. The end goal is a standard that is connected to technical picture of how the AI will learn this information about humans, and how it will use it to make decisions. So the overall thrust is "given that AI safety is important, there is a specific sort of ethics-genre reasoning that is going to be useful, and here are some gestures towards what it might look like." You can put more than one of these ideas into a paper if you want. This particular idea feels to me like it could benefit from being paired with another topic before or after it. Dunking on specific mistakes, like talking about "robots" rather than "optimization processes," should probably be done with care and tact. A worked example of "dual use" ethics - a connection between thinking about present-day problems and superhuman AI. I expect most of the examples to be problems that sound relevant to the modern day, but that sneakily contain most of the alignment problem. E.g. Xuan's AI that takes actions in response to laws that we really want to follow the spirit of the law. Although that's a bit too futuristic, actually, because we don't have much present-day ...

As markets grapple with pricing in inflation, central bank rate hikes, and slowing growth, can the recent S&P 500 rally help investors gauge what may happen next for equities?-----Transcript-----Welcome to Thoughts on the Market. I'm Mike Wilson, Chief Investment Officer and Chief U.S. Equity Strategist for Morgan Stanley. Along with my colleagues bringing you a variety of perspectives, I'll be talking about the latest trends in the financial marketplace. It's Monday, July 25th, at 11 a.m. in New York. So let's get after it. Since the June lows at 3650, the S&P 500 has been range trading between those lows and 3950. However, this past week, the S&P 500 peaked its head above the 50 day moving average, even touching 4000 for a few hours. While we aren't convinced this is anything but a bear market rally, it does beg the question is something going on here that could make this a more sustainable low and even the end to the bear market? First, from a fundamental standpoint, we are more convicted in our view that S&P 500 earnings estimates are too high, and they have at least 10% downside from the recent peak of $240/share. So far, that forecast has only dropped by 0.5%, making it difficult for us to agree with that view that the market has already priced it. Of course, we could also be wrong about the earnings risk and perhaps the current $238 is an accurate reflection of reality. However, with most of our leading indicators on growth rolling over, we continue to think this is not the case, and disappointing growth remains the more important variable to watch for stocks at this point, rather than inflation or the Fed's reaction to it. Having said that, we do agree with the narrative that inflation has likely peaked from a rate of change standpoint, with commodities as the best real time evidence of that claim. We think the equity market is smart enough to understand this too, and more importantly, that growth is quickly becoming a problem. Therefore, part of the recent rally may be the equity market looking forward to the Fed's eventual attempt to save the cycle from recession. With time running short on that front. And looking at past cycles, there's always a period between the Fed's last hike and the eventual recession. More importantly, this period has been a good time to be long equities. In short, the equity market always rallies when the Fed pauses tightening campaign prior to the oncoming recession. The point here is that if the market is starting to think the Fed's about to pause rate hikes after this week's, this would provide the best fundamental rationale for why equity markets have rallied over the past few weeks despite the disappointing fundamental news and why it may signal a more durable low. The problem with this thinking, in our view, is it's unlikely the Fed is going to pause early enough to save the cycle. While we appreciate that investors may be trying to leap ahead here to get in front of what could be a bullish signal for equity prices remain skeptical that the Fed can reverse the negative trends for demand that are already now well-established, some of which have nothing to do with monetary policy. Furthermore, the demand destructive nature of high inflation is presenting itself today will not easily disappear even if inflation declined sharply. This is because prices are already out of reach in areas of the economy that are critical for this cycle to extend in areas like housing and autos, food, gasoline and other necessities. Secondarily, high inflation provides a real constraint for the Fed to pause or pivot, even if they decided a risk of recession was imminent. That's the main difference versus more recent cycles and why we think it remains a good idea to stay defensively oriented in one's equity positioning until further earnings disappointments are factored into consensus estimates or equity prices. Thanks for listening. If you enjoy Thoughts on the Market, please take a moment to rate and review us on the Apple Podcast app. It helps more people to find the show.

Some investors think a potential recession is already priced in but given defensive leadership, labor statistics and incoming Fed rate hikes, it may be too early to tell.----- Transcript -----Welcome to Thoughts on the Market. I'm Mike Wilson, Chief Investment Officer and Chief U.S. Equity Strategist for Morgan Stanley. Along with my colleagues, bringing you a variety of perspectives, I'll be talking about the latest trends in the financial marketplace. It's Monday, July 18th, at 11 a.m. in New York. So let's get after it.Last week, we highlighted how extreme the 12-month price momentum weightings are for defensive sectors. In fact, it's unprecedented for this type of price momentum to occur outside of an economic recession. One reaction to this development we've heard from many clients is that a recession must already be priced based on this relationship. If true, then defensive leadership is likely to reverse with something else taking the lead, like growth stocks or even cyclicals. We disagree and believe defensive leadership will likely persist until either a recession is officially announced, or the risk of a recession is definitively extinguished.In our view, the first outcome can only be achieved with a series of negative payroll data releases, something that still seems far away given last month's 372,000 new job additions. The second outcome—a soft landing—will also be hard to prove to the market until earnings revisions bottom out and companies stop doing hiring freezes.With respect to the recession outcome, the odds have been steadily increasing now for months. Morgan Stanley's proprietary economic model is currently suggesting a 36% probability of a recession in the next 12 months. Historically speaking, once it reaches 40%, it's usually a definitive reading that recession is oncoming. Furthermore, jobless claims have been rising the past few weeks. Secondarily, the household survey for total employment peaked in March and has fallen by approximately 400,000 jobs so far. While not the gold standard for measuring labor market health, it's worth watching closely as things can change rapidly for hiring and firing, particularly when profits come under significant pressure, as we expect. Finally, the job openings data has started to roll over, albeit from record high levels, while consumer and business confidence readings remain at record lows.In the very near term, equity markets seem to be digesting another hot Consumer Price Index release very well, even as concerns rose that the Fed might raise rates as much as 100 basis points next week. Our view is that 75 basis points is still the base case, and that should be plenty to keep the Fed on track to getting ahead of the curve. Importantly, the bond market seems to agree with the yield curve inverting the most since the 2000 cycle, quickly catching up to the defensive leadership of the stock market. The bullish take which this market seems to want to try and run with one more time, is that the Fed can pivot before a recession arrives.The other positive that has investors excited again is the fact that bank stocks had a strong rally on Friday, even as the earnings results were quite mixed. While this kind of price action is a necessary condition for the bear market to be over, we would caution that second quarter results are likely to be the first of several cuts, not just for banks, but for the market overall.The bottom line is that this earnings season is likely to be the first of several disappointing ones, especially if a recession is the endgame. Therefore, staying defensively oriented in one's equity positioning should remain the best course of action for the next several months.Thanks for listening. If you enjoy Thoughts on the Market, please take a moment to rate and review us on the Apple Podcasts app. It helps more people to find the show.

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: CEA's Community Events Programme: Update and Call for Applications, published by OllieBase on July 13, 2022 on The Effective Altruism Forum. TL;DR: CEA's Events team funds and supports community members who want to run events. Apply to run an event here! The Centre for Effective Altruism (CEA) Events team now has 3 programmes: EA Global — organising large conferences for those significantly involved in EA. Retreats — organising retreats for community leaders and other select retreats. Community Events — funding and supporting events run by community members, such as EAGx conferences. CEA has supported EAGx conferences since 2016. EAGx events primarily aim to engage and connect community members – both highly-engaged and those just starting to explore EA – in a certain region. EA Global conferences are usually larger and aim to help highly-engaged EAs from around the world network and share ideas. At the start of this year, we expanded the type of events we support beyond EAGx conferences to include other events community members wanted to run. This post is an update on that programme, which is now called Community Events. I, Ollie, run the Community Events Programme (henceforth, CEP). Goals The goal of the CEP is to help significantly scale up the number of high-quality, EA-aligned events. Secondarily, by supporting different types of events run by community members around the world, we hope to learn more about how events can help people have more impact and feed these lessons into our own work on EA Global and retreats. We're currently early on in our testing phase, but expect to learn more over the course of the year. To support events at scale, we provide community members with flexible funding, high-level advice and, where appropriate, free access to the resources we use for our own events (e.g. Zoho, which supports our application systems, and Swapcard, our event networking app). We also pay organisers for their time working on the event. The amount of advice we offer varies depending on the size of the event and the experience of the organisers - in many cases (e.g. small retreats), we act more like a grantmaker than an advisor. Community Events in 2022 so far 10 community events supported by CEA have taken place in 7 different countries so far this year: EAGxOxford (Oxford, UK) EAGxBoston (Boston, MA, US) EAGxPrague (Prague, Czech Republic) EAGxAustralia (Canberra, Australia) EA South Germany Retreat (Tubingen, Germany) EA Midwest "Next Steps" Retreat (Lake Geneva, WI, US) Strategic Philanthropy and Altruism Conference (Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates) Open Workshop on Global Priorities Research (Oxford, UK) EAecon retreat (Oxford, UK) Australia and New Zealand Group Leaders Retreat (Goulburn, Australia) The likelihood to recommend scores for these events were consistently high (all over 8/10). We also have some evidence that high-impact connections were made at these events. For example: One EAGxOxford attendee reported that they made connections which helped them shape their next steps in upskilling in AI Safety. They applied for the SERI Fellowship and the ML Safety Scholars program, and were accepted into both. They think it's 10% likely they would've applied to SERI and 60% likely they would've applied for the ML program if they didn't attend EAGxOxford and EAG London. One EAGxBoston attendee reported that the contacts they made at the conference (who they probably would not have met otherwise) were worth ~$5 million in donations to the organisation they worked for (and we think that this claim is credible, based on this person's position). One EAGxPrague attendee was offered and accepted a job with unexpectedly high fit at the conference. These examples are illustrative of the kind of impact EA events can have on community members, though please note tha...

Terrence Thames is the CEO of Advanced Media Production Firm, LLC dba Cocoa Creative Agency. Terrence Thames is a man of faith, husband, father, and entrepreneur. Terrence has a passion for seeing others succeed in business and in life – especially people of color. Having grown up on the South Side of Chicago, Terrence was raised by his college-aged cousin in Iowa City at the age of 9 where he was exposed to a better life and more opportunities. At that time, Terrence became heavily involved in church, video production, journalism, and music. Working professionally since the age of 17, Terrence launched his own creative agency in 2011 – Advanced Media Production Firm, LLC dba Cocoa Creative Agency. Terrence is currently focused on family, faith, and wealth-building among minorities and their communities.   Here's what we covered on the episode: Terrence's Young Start to Video Editing  How I'm currently in a business accelerator at Drake University in Des Moines, IA, for a new business I was to start, and how Terrence is a business advisor within the program, which is how we met  Terrence shares that he learned to edit videos at the age of 12 from a family friend and then started volunteering to edit videos for their church program at the time  When Terrence got older, he started doing more creative editing using Premiere and Final Cut, which really made things take off for him  After high school, Terrence started working at the University of Iowa in the athletics video department, where he was able to combine his love for sports, video production, and design  There are many approaches to production, but Terrence's approach to editing has been taking standard video production from live events, cutting them up on a computer on a timeline, and then putting together a narrative with music to help convey a message     Terrence got to practice his skills through sporting events at the University of Iowa and even helped on some TV sports shows for coaches  When Terrence was volunteering for his church, their TV program was on the local public access station, where people could make anything for any purpose, so Terrence grew up around people who were creating art and things for community programs  You can use video editing and production to create so many different things, and we see more and more people get into editing or content creation because of the accessibility we have through social media and our phones  How a lot of people may not know they are editors even though they are engaging with content all the time and changing it into something else  Terrence explains that many games were covered by ABC, ESPN, or Fox Sports, but if someone didn't show up to work, they would call the person for video production for the school and ask if they had any students to do different tasks for them, like running a camera so Terrence would take many of those opportunities Terrence says its a really special thing when you're able to combine your passions as he has with sports and editing video production  By freelancing and taking those opportunities, Terrence was able to build his resume with many bigger brands early on through proximity, and because he lived in a smaller town, he was able to get to anyone, which opened up even more opportunities    Creating His Business + Getting Experience  In his heart, Terrence always knew he wanted to have a business, but he says he really wanted to have something on paper for tax purposes, so he was thinking about names and came up with Advanced Media Production Firm           Before making his business an LLC, he had it as a sole proprietorship with his local county and was working full-time while doing his business on the side  How Terrence moved to Des Moines and 2010 and in 2011 had his business filed as an LLC, which is when the business officially started - he didn't have a business plan or very many clients but knew that if he was going to be freelancing or doing work for people he wanted to have it separated on paper as an entity When building his brand, Terrence says it was a lot of manifestation, God opening up opportunities and using his personal experiences with brands as part of his business portfolio Terrence made a website early on, and people started to call - sometimes, the small projects were for big brands, which he leveraged  Growing up, Terrence's church did fundraisers by working concessions at the University of Iowa games - during the 4th quarter, they shut down the concessions, and Terrence was able to watch the last quarter of the football games on the jumbotron - he told himself one day he was going to work for that video board team   The family friend that taught Terrence how to edit videos also did freelance camera on the sidelines for the University of Iowa, and so when Terrence got older, he asked her who she used to work for, but she only remembered the person's first name Terrence made a resume right out of high school and started calling the athletics department of Iowa University asking for this person until he finally got connected with them - he wanted the opportunity to work for them as a student even though he was going to community college  They agreed Terrence would be hired on as a miscellaneous professional - they taught him how to use their special cameras and had him come in a few hours a week to edit and film the Iowa women's basketball team, which he did part-time while going to community college  Eventually, in 2012, Terrence started working at Drake University, where one of the things he oversaw was video production for athletics; in that position, he was looking for students to help with production, which gave them a lot of experience  Terrence says there is always an opportunity if you look for one to get experience  Content creation and editing were Terrence's specialty, but he says he was always big on visuals and led with visuals by using video or photography as a primary part of the layout for design How Terrence was able to easily navigate templates which helped him when he started doing more motion graphic design   In your professional space, Terrence says, there is a certain time where video production is key, there's a certain time with graphic design and layout is key, and then there's a time to integrate all those things    Understanding Your Business to Build a Team + Price Model How being a creative helped but only got Terrence so far; when he started doing more work, he didn't have time to do everything - to grow, he needed to hire people who were better than him in certain spaces  Terrence shares that he loves to work on teams that do well and lift each other up As an agency, they lead with video production; virtual productions, virtual events, live events, and filming other things with a narrative for storytelling  Secondarily, the agency does social media marketing campaigns, web development, and brand strategy    When Terrence first started, he was charging $500 for an early Wix website, $100 for graphic design because he had another job to rely on at the time, so he wasn't charging in a way that would let him grow his business  Terrence has an office downtown, they have clients locally, regionally, and a couple nationally - his pricing model is better but could be improved because he realized they were charging under 150% in some areas compared to their counterparts  Now, if they do a small virtual event, they are charging a minimum of $3,500 - Terrence shares that the price is similar for a smaller hybrid or in-person event    Video production rates for onsite productions can range anywhere from a half-day, around $1,400+ if it's a virtual production for a conference they are producing, it would be a minimum of $11,000 and could get up to $40,000 - $80,000 depending on all the elements going into it  For bigger projects, if some of the client elements reach beyond the agency's capacity, Terrence says they partner with people who can help bring something alive for a client  Terrence explains that they try to hover around $125 - $175 / hr, and if it's a long-term project, they do an assessment to determine what the pricing will be based on the number of hours estimated to go into the work   How the agency now has 7 - 8 full-time and part-time staff who are W-2 employees and 4 - 5 freelance that work for them regularly   A main theme for the agency Terrence says has been building out infrastructure, putting in standard operating procedures, and then doing the things that make them an actual viable business as opposed to ‘Terrence and the freelancers' - they offer benefits because people have needs and concerns  How you need to keep reassessing your business to make sure everything is working in all areas - you have to think about your growth and what you should start, stop and continue  There are a lot of creatives out there who don't think about what they need to do to become profitable, bring on investors or partners, or even sell their business - Terrence says you need to have an open mind and make sure you're handling your pricing model correctly  A lot is going on in the creative space right now, there are a lot more people exercising their entrepreneurial mindset, and while Terrence thinks it's important to be around other creatives, he says you need to make sure you understand the business side first  If you have an idea of how you want to grow your creative business, Terrence believes you have to go after what's in your heart - there's no one way to do anything; you can learn along the way Making sure your business is in order first is important because you don't want to be a struggling creative; you want to be flourishing and adding value to areas that you see you can solve a problem in as a creative Terrence encourages people to expand their minds about how the business works, ask a lot of questions and be unafraid to live in your purpose  Connect with Terrence on Instagram or LinkedIn Links mentioned:   Advanced Media Production Firm, LLC dba Cocoa Creative Agency   Connect with Terrence on Instagram    Connect with Terrence on LinkedIn   Like what you heard?  Click here to subscribe + leave a review on iTunes. Click here to download my Sales Page Trello Board Let's connect on Instagram!

While ongoing inflation has had some positive effects, consumers continue to feel its ill effects and we are beginning to see net negatives for earnings growth as Q1 earnings season begins.-----Transcript-----Welcome to Thoughts on the Market. I'm Mike Wilson, Chief Investment Officer and Chief U.S. Equity Strategist for Morgan Stanley. Along with my colleagues bringing you a variety of perspectives, I'll be talking about the latest trends in the financial marketplace. It's Monday, April 18th at 3 p.m. in New York. So let's get after it. Last week, we discussed how stocks were sending different messages about growth than bonds. We laid out our case for why stocks are likely to be the most trusted on this messaging and reiterated our preference for late cycle defensives that we've held since November. This week, we lay out the case for why this earnings season may finally bring the downward revisions to forward earnings forecasts that have remained elusive thus far. While we appreciate how inflation can be good for nominal GDP and therefore revenue growth, we think the inflation we are experiencing now is no longer a net positive for earnings growth for several reasons. First, there's a latent impact of inflation on costs that are now showing up in margins. Secondarily, the spike in energy and food costs, which serve as a tax on the consumer that is already struggling with high prices. In other words, we think the positive effects of inflation on earnings growth have reached their peak, and are now more likely to be a headwind to growth, particularly as inflation forces the Fed to be increasingly bearish, which leads to another headwind - significantly higher long term interest rates. More specifically, the average 30 year fixed mortgage rate is now above 5%, which is more than 60% higher since the start of the year, and why mortgage applications are also down more than 60% from their peak last year. This hasn't gone unnoticed by the market, by the way, which has punished housing related stocks to the tune of 40% or more. Given the long tailed effect that housing has on the economy, we think this is a major headwind to economic and earnings growth more broadly. Perhaps this explains why the de-rating has been so severe in the economically sensitive areas of the market, while defensive areas have actually seen valuations expand. This suggests the market is worrying about higher rates and slower growth, even as the overall index remains expensive. This is also very much in line with our view for defensives to dominate in this late cycle environment. However, the overall index remains a bit of a mystery, with the price earnings multiple down only 11% in the face of much higher interest rates. We chalk this up to the incredibly strong flows into equities from asset owners, which include retail, pension funds and endowments. These investors seem to have made a decision to abandon bonds in favor of stocks, which are a much better inflation hedge. These flows are keeping the main index more expensive, thereby leaving the real message about growth at the sector level. As already suggested, we think that message is crystal clear and in line with our own view that growth is slowing and likely more than most are forecasting. Especially for 2023, when the risk of a recession is increased. With regard to that view, signs are emerging that first quarter earnings season may disappoint, particularly from a guidance and forward earnings standpoint. More specifically, earnings revisions breadth for the S&P 500 has resumed its downward trend over the past 2 weeks, and is once again approaching negative territory. This is largely being driven by declining revisions in cyclical industries where we've been more negative. These include consumer discretionary, industrials, tech hardware and semiconductors. Negative revisions are often an indication that forward earnings estimates are going to flatten out or even fall. When forward earnings fall, it's usually not good for stocks and may even break the pattern of strong inflows to equities, as investors rethink their decision to use stocks at this point as a good hedge against inflation. Bottom line, stick with more defensively oriented sectors and stocks as earnings visibility is challenged for the average company. Secondarily, wait for at least one or two rounds of earnings cuts at the S&P level before adding to broader equity risk. Thanks for listening! If you enjoy Thoughts on the Market, please take a moment to rate and review us on the Apple Podcasts app. It helps more people to find the show.

In episode 4, Cody sits down with Jesse Gould - a retired Army Ranger and president of Heroic Hearts Project. After serving three tours in Afghanistan, Jesse founded the Heroic Hearts Project to spearhead the acceptance and use of ayahuasca therapy as a means of addressing the current mental health crisis among veterans. (Time stamps below) Heroic Hearts Project (HHP) is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit that connects military veterans struggling with trauma to psychedelic therapy options including ayahuasca, psilocybin, ibogaine, and ketamine treatments in combination with professional coaching and integration. HHP provides these veterans, who have often exhausted all of the resources offered by the Department of Veteran Affairs and don't know where to turn, with education about and access to these alternative healing modalities. HHP's mission is to restore hope and empower each veteran in his or her own healing process. Secondarily, HHP aims to contribute to the growing base of psychedelic research, to educate the public on the potential of psychedelics based on the outcomes of this research, and to advocate for policy changes enabling increased and more equitable access to psychedelic therapies. The Awakened Underground is a proud ambassador of the Heroic Hearts Project. 0:06 - Disclaimer 1:53 - Cody shares a story, talks about street fighting and breaking cycles of violence 10:43 - background on PTSD  14:20 - psychedelic medicines that are at the forefront of the treatment of PTSD 16:06 Cody introduces Jesse Gould 16:31 - What is Ayahuasca? 19:29 - Interview with Jesse Gould 20:27 - How Jesse discovered psychedelic medicines and their potential for helping Veterans 28:35 PTSD 30:03  - working with a social worker at the VA 31:38 - pharmaceuticals and alcohol  39:05 deciding to go to Spirit Quest in the jungle 45:15 - Jesse's first two nights with Ayahuasca 47:00 - drinking Ayahuasca with Cody's mom 48:44 - Jesse's third night with Ayahuasca 53:25 - Jesse's fourth night working with Ayahuasca 56:06 - integrating the experience  58:36 - reflecting on the experience  59:35 - Traumatic brain injuries in Veterans and healing CTE 1:10:46 - Beginning the Heroic Hearts Project 1:19:35 - risks 1:20:39 - what the HHP program entails  1:33:16 - the integration process and coaches for Veterans  1:39:07 The HHP Ambassador Program  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is a response to Thomas Wayment's presentation to Dialogue Journal of Mormon Thought on Joseph of Egypt as a gay prophetic character. The primary purpose of this episode is to show where Critical Social Justice is leading to within LDS scholarship and how it will arrive at the Book of Mormon. Secondarily, I give a minimal response to Professor Wayment's points of support such as the Coat of Many Colors (fancy) and the contrast between Joseph and his brothers. Website - https://www.cwicmedia.com

While geopolitical tensions currently weigh on markets, investors should look to the fundamentals in order to anticipate the depth and duration of the ongoing correction.Important note regarding economic sanctions. This research references country/ies which are generally the subject of comprehensive or selective sanctions programs administered or enforced by the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”), the European Union and/or by other countries and multi-national bodies. Users of this report are solely responsible for ensuring that their investment activities in relation to any sanctioned country/ies are carried out in compliance with applicable sanctions.-----Transcript-----Welcome to Thoughts on the Market. I'm Mike Wilson, Chief Investment Officer and Chief U.S. Equity Strategist for Morgan Stanley. Along with my colleagues bringing you a variety of perspectives, I'll be talking about the latest trends in the financial marketplace. It's Wednesday, February 23rd at 11 a.m. in New York. So let's get after it. This past week tensions around Russia/Ukraine dominated the headlines. When unpredictable events like this occur, it's easy to simply throw up one's arms and blame all price action on it. However, we're not so sure that's a good idea, particularly in the current environment of Fed tightening and slowing growth. From here, though, the depth and duration of the ongoing correction will be determined primarily by the magnitude of the slowdown in the first half of 2022. While the Russia/Ukraine situation obviously can make this slowdown even worse, ultimately, we think that preexisting fundamental risks we've been focused on for months will be the primary drivers, particularly as geopolitical concerns are now very much priced. While most economic and earnings forecasts do reflect the slowdown from last year's torrid pace, we think there's a growing risk of greater disappointment in both. We've staked our case primarily on slowing consumer demand as confidence remains low thanks to the generationally high inflation in just about everything the consumer needs and wants. Many investors we speak with remain more convinced the consumer will hold up better than the confidence surveys suggest. After all, high frequency data like retail sales and credit card data remain robust, while many consumer facing companies continue to indicate no slowdown in demand, at least not yet. However, most of our leading indicators suggest that the risk of consumer slowdown remains higher than normal. Secondarily, but perhaps just as importantly, is the fact that supply is now rising. While this will alleviate some of the supply shortages, it could also lead to a return of price discounting for many goods where inflationary pressures have been the greatest. That's potentially a problem for margins. It's also a risk to demand, in our view, if the improved supply reveals a much greater level of double ordering than what is currently anticipated. In short, the order books - i.e. the demand picture - may not be as robust as people believe. Overall, the technical picture is mixed also within U.S. equities. Rarely have we witnessed such weak breath and havoc under the surface when the S&P 500 is down less than 10%. In our experience, when such a divergence like this happens, it typically ends with the primary index catching down to the average stock. In short, this correction looks incomplete to us. Nevertheless, we also appreciate that equity markets are very oversold and sentiment is bearish even if positioning is not. With the Russia Ukraine situation now weighing heavily on equity markets, relief would likely lead to a tactical rally, but we acknowledge that uncertainty remains extremely high. The bottom line for us is that we really don't have a strong view on the Russia/Ukraine situation as it relates to the equity markets. However, we think a lot of bad news is priced at this point. Therefore, we would look to sell strength into the end of the month if markets rally on the geopolitical risk failing to escalate further. Thanks for listening. If you enjoy Thoughts on the Market, please take a moment to rate and review us on the Apple Podcasts app. It helps more people to find the show.

With the reading of this Old Testament prophecy Jesus reveals here, what he hides in other places. He is, indeed, the Messiah, and all of the Scriptures are about him. Secondarily, the Bible is about the spiritual “poor”, “blind”, “imprisoned” and “oppressed”. In so far as you identify as one in spiritual need, the Bible is about you, too. In Jesus, those in need have One who make others spiritually “rich”, gives “sight”, “liberates” and takes off our “burdens”. (Scripture Reading: Luke 4:16-30

PHP Internals News: Episode 97: Redacting Parameters London, UK Thursday, January 27th 2022, 09:09 GMT In this episode of "PHP Internals News" I chat with Tim Düsterhus (GitHub) about the "Redacting Parameters in Back Traces" RFC. The RSS feed for this podcast is https://derickrethans.nl/feed-phpinternalsnews.xml, you can download this episode's MP3 file, and it's available on Spotify and iTunes. There is a dedicated website: https://phpinternals.news Transcript Derick Rethans 0:00 Before we start with this episode, I want to apologize for the bad audio quality. Instead of using my nice mic I managed to use to one built into my computer. I hope you'll still enjoy the episode. Derick Rethans 0:30 Hi, I'm Derick. Welcome to PHP internals news, a podcast dedicated to explaining the latest developments in the PHP language. This is episode 97. Today I'm talking with Tim Düsterhus about Redacting Parameters in Backtraces RFC that he's proposing. Tim, would you please introduce yourself? Tim Düsterhus 0:50 Hi, Derick, thank you for inviting me. I am Tim Düsterhus, and I'm a developer at WoltLab. We are building a web application suite for you to build online communities. Derick Rethans 0:59 Thanks for coming on this morning. What is the problem that you're trying to solve with this RFC? Tim Düsterhus 1:05 If everything is going well, we don't need this RFC. But errors can and will happen and our application might encounter some exceptional situation, maybe some request to an external service fails. And so the application throws an error, this exception will bubble up a stack trace and either be caught, or go into a global exception handler. And then basically, in both cases, the exception will be logged into the error log. If it can be handled, we want to make the admin side aware of the issues so they can maybe fix their networking. If it is unable to be handled because of a programming error, we need to log it as well to fix the bug. In our case, we have the exception in the error log. And what happens next? In our case, we have many, many lay person administrators that run a community for their hobby, they're not really programmers with no technical expertise. And we also have a strong customers help customers environment. What do those customers do? They grab their error log and post it within our forums in public. Now in our forum, we have the error log with the full stack trace, including all sensitive values, maybe user passwords, if the Authentication Service failed, or something else, that should not really happen. In our case, it's lay person administrators. But I'm also seeing that experienced developers can make this mistake. I am triaging issues with an open source software written in C. And I've sometimes seeing system administrators posting their full core dump, including their TLS certificates there, and they don't really realize what they have just done. That's really an issue that affects laypersons, and professional administrators the same. In our case, our application attempts to strip those sensitive information from this backtrace. We have a custom exception handler that scans the full stack face, tries to match up class names and method names e.g. the PDO constructor to scrub the database password. And now recently, we have extended this stripping to also strip anything from parameters that are called password, secret, or something like that. That mostly works well. But in any case, this exception handler will miss sensitive information because it needs to basically guess what parameters are sensitive values and which don't. And also our exception handler grew very complex because to match up those parameters, it needs to use reflection. And any failures within the exception handler cannot really be recovered from, if the exception handler fails, you're out of luck. Derick Rethans 3:51 Quite a few things to think of to make sure that you're not sharing any secrets. And I certainly have seen almost doing this myself. We now know what the problem is. How is this RFC proposing to fix this? Tim Düsterhus 4:03 Primarily, we want to propose a standardized way for applications or libraries to indicate which parameters hold sensitive values. Our custom exception handler uses reflection as we said before, and it only matches up the parameter's names, but we also have this attribute I am proposing, SensitiveParameter within our application itself. Any parameter names that are not definitely sensitive can be attributed with this attribute. But this only works within our software, but not with any third party libraries we are using, e.g. for encryption or whatever there is. Primarily we want to propose a standardized way an attribute that is in PHP core, anyone can use that and everyone knows what this attribute means. Secondarily, the RFC is proposing a default implementation to keep the exception handler simple. As I said before, we are using reflection. This is very complex, it does not work with the require_once or include_once family, because that are not functions. We need to handle this case to not try to attempt to reflect on those non functions when redacting any parameters. This is complex. And we want to simplify that. Derick Rethans 5:20 From what I understand this is then a way to make sure that there's a standardized method for marking arguments as being sensitive. And because this is that now standardized, only one solution to the problem has to be found right? Tim Düsterhus 5:34 Basically, not every library is using their own attributes, possibly, or we can match parameter names that are not like password, secret, but it can be documented: hey, if you are using sensitive parameters, you should put this attribute and then those exception handlers will be aware that this attribute is sensitive and can strip it, or in case of the RFC PHP itself, will already strip those parameters from the stack trace. Derick Rethans 6:04 You're suggesting that PHP standard way of showing stack traces also takes care of the sensitive parameter here? Tim Düsterhus 6:11 Yes, exactly. Derick Rethans 6:13 Which internal PHP functions are likely to get this attribute? Tim Düsterhus 6:16 Basically anything with a parameter called password or secret, as I said before, examples include PDO's constructor, the database password will be in there and possibly also the user name or host name, which might be considered sensitive. But the password is the most important thing I have on my list. ldap_bind, which possibly includes user passwords; the password_hash function; possibly various OpenSSL functions. One will need to look and this list can be extended in the future as well, if someone realizes we missed anything. Derick Rethans 6:55 Now, I know sometimes that there's a problem where an application connects to the wrong server with PDO. And as you say, the host name was also in this PDO constructor, would it not then make debugging that specific case harder because the hostname would also be redacted from the stack traces? Tim Düsterhus 7:14 The attribute I am proposing as the parameter attribute, each parameter can be sensitive or non sensitive. We would need to decide whether we consider the hostname sensitive or not. It usually is not. So I would not put the attribute on the host name, or on the DSN string in the first parameter. The password definitely is sensitive. And the username possibly is a grey area. By default, I probably would not put the attribute there. But this is something that needs to be discussed in the greater community possibly. Derick Rethans 7:47 I saw in the RFC that when you request a stack trace in PHP with get back trace or whatever the name of this function is, is that the sensitive parameters are being replaced by an object of the class SensitiveParameter. Why did you pick that instead of just a string, saying something like "redacted". Tim Düsterhus 8:06 We cannot force users to put the attribute only on parameters that take strings. If we use a redacted string we might violate the type hint. If a function takes some key pair class, or an option of a key pair class, this usually is a sensitive attribute, we cannot simply put a string there. We can but then we would violate the typing. And as we violate the typing in at least some of the cases, we can also violate it in all of the cases and then make it very clear that this parameter was redacted and not a real value that just looks like a string "redacted". Exception handlers would be able to use an instanceof SensitiveParameter check to possibly make it more user friendly when they render the stack trace. When you using an GUI to handle your exceptions as such a Sentry can show some placeholder instead of pretending it's a real string in there. Derick Rethans 8:07 And of course, the string "redacted" can already exist as an argument value yet anyway, right? Tim Düsterhus 9:12 Yeah. Derick Rethans 9:13 Where would attribute be checked? Tim Düsterhus 9:16 My proposal would extend PHP to check this attribute within the function that generates the stack trace, because as I said, I want to keep my exception handler simple, so they won't need to use reflection to check this attribute. PHP itself will check this attribute when the stack trace is generated. So no exception handler can miss to check this attribute. Derick Rethans 9:39 Would it be possible for code that checks for SensitiveParameter to see what the original value was? I can imagine that in some cases, an exception handler as part of a debugging toolbar, whatever does want to show this extra information, although there's going to be hidden by default. Tim Düsterhus 9:58 Not with the current version of my RFC, but I can imagine that this sensitive parameter replacement value gets an attribute where the original value can be stored. Care would need to be taken, so exception handlers don't simply serialize that value and ship it to a third party service, basically negating the benefit. But a future extension, or maybe the further discussion of my RFC can extend this replacement value. So you can use sensitive parameter, arrow, original value, or whatever. Derick Rethans 10:34 In PHP attributes are basically markers on parameters or arguments. But they don't necessarily have to have an object implementation. Is your RFC also including the SensitiveParameter class that PHP core implements? Tim Düsterhus 10:51 Yes, in my current RFC, and my current proof of concept implementation, I'm just reusing that attribute class as the replacement value within the stack trace. So we can kill two birds with one stone by doing that, by including proper class, also, any IDE will be able to see that class and know where that attribute can be applied. Because attributes have a property where they say where they can be applied in this case parameters only. And by putting it on the method by accident, you will possibly get an error or the IDE can warn you that you're doing this not correctly, Derick Rethans 11:32 You might be aware that I work on Xdebug, a debugger for PHP. And in many cases, some of the users have already previously said that Xdebug should, for example, follow the debug_info() magic method on objects to show redacted information. Now, would you think that when people debug PHP with a debugger such as Xdebug, should they see the contents of the arguments that are set with SensitiveParameter, or should it stack traces show the real value? Tim Düsterhus 12:07 In case of debugging, you're not usually not in production. So within your debugging environment or development environment, you shouldn't really have any sensitive value such as passwords, or credit card numbers, or whatever there is. In that case, debugability and ease of development should be more important. Xdebug, or any other debugger should see through those sensitive attributes and show the real value, possibly with an indicator that this value would usually be sensitive. But you shouldn't need to work around PHP hiding something from you, because you really want or need to see what happens there. Derick Rethans 12:48 Now Xdebug also override PHP's standard exception handler, and then creates a stack trace of its own. Do you think that should redact the SensitiveParameter arguments? Tim Düsterhus 13:00 I'm not really sure if people run this in production. If this is something people usually do, then of course, Xdebug should make sure to redact those values, possibly with a special ini flag or something. If that's only used in development. In my case, I only use Xdebug in development and production servers don't have that; you don't really connect to your production server with your IDE and then step through the code. That does not happen. So we don't need Xdebug in production. Derick Rethans 13:32 I know some people do run Xdebug in production. But I also don't think those are the people that care about leaking sensitive parameters. I think the RFC talks about a few existing features that PHP already has for redacting some values. What are these? And how are they not sufficient? Tim Düsterhus 13:49 There are two php.ini values you can set. One of those is do not collect parameters in stack traces, I don't have the exact name. But basically, all functions will just show an empty parameter list within the stack trace. That makes debugging very hard, especially with PHP and the non-strict typing, it can happen that you pass some completely invalid value to a function, even in production after testing and such. And you really want to know about this value, because it makes debugging very hard. Not collecting the parameters makes the stack traces much, much less useful. So this targeted redaction, as I'm proposing, hides the sensitive values but the non sensitive values will still be visible. And the other one is that the length of collected strings within the stack place can be configured. By default. I think it's on 15, but 15 characters already include user passwords such as password, exclamation mark, or 12345. And also credit card numbers will be exposed to three fourths by then. And the last four digits are shown in clear text on many pages. So that doesn't really help with those type of user credentials. Of course, your database password might be 40 characters completely random. But that's not really the values you want, or need to protect, because the database server will not be exposed to the internet, in many cases. Derick Rethans 15:33 What has the feedback been so far to this RFC? Tim Düsterhus 15:36 Both positive, and "we don't need that nobody does that". It's a bit mixed. I've got some very good feedback. There's a Twitter account that tweets any new RFCs. And so the users on Twitter, the actual users, and not PHP internals list seem to be very happy with my proposal. On the list, many said, just don't log that values, or they don't really see the benefit yet, I think. Not really sure how the feedback is really. Derick Rethans 16:07 That's always a tricky thing, isn't it? Because the people that think "Oh, this is all right", often bother responding, because they don't have anything to add or criticize. Tim Düsterhus 16:17 Exactly. People that are happy won't write any reviews for whatever, just the people that complain are complaining. Derick Rethans 16:24 Yeah, it's either the people that are complaining are the people that are really happy about something. Are you expecting there to be any backward compatibility breaks? Tim Düsterhus 16:34 Yeah, obviously, when the attribute class name will be taken by default by PHP, userland code cannot use that any more. But I don't think that anyone is using a SensitiveParameter class in the global namespace. I used GitHub search and SensitiveParameter in PHP code only appears in some strings, in the AWS SDK or something like that. The replacement value will break any type signature. So if the exception handler checks, the original parameter types for whatever reason, that will, or might break, but I don't really think that's likely either. I don't expect any major backwards compatibility breaks. Derick Rethans 17:17 That's good to hear. And also good to hear that you have done some research into this. Do you have any extra selling points to convince people? Tim Düsterhus 17:26 My initial selling point was PDO's constructor. Or not really selling point, but example, because it's very obvious and it's in PHP core. I later expanded that with the credit card numbers and user passwords, and made, attempted to make this more clear that those sensitive values are not just values from your personal computing environment, but also something user input into your application. And that stack traces will be sent to third parties e.g. Sentry, which might even be run as a software as a service solution. And then your deep in GDPR territory. You don't want that. Derick Rethans 18:03 No, absolutely not. Tim, thank you for taking the time this morning to talk to me about your RFC. Tim Düsterhus 18:10 Thank you for having me. Derick Rethans 18:15 Thank you for listening to this installment of PHP internals news, a podcast dedicated to demystifying the development of the PHP language. I maintain a Patreon account for supporters of this podcast, as well as the Xdebug debugging tool. You can sign up for Patreon at https://drck.me/patreon. If you have comments or suggestions, feel free to email them to derick@phpinternals.news. Thank you for listening. I'll see you next time. Show Notes RFC: Redacting parameters in back traces PHP RFC Bot on Twitter Credits Music: Chipper Doodle v2 — Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) — Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Rosters constantly churn in college football, but this week, we have a better idea of what Penn State football will look like next fall. With that in mind, the host of the BWI Daily Edition, Thomas Frank Carr, thinks that Penn State's passing attack can be different and better in 2022. Transfer Mitchell Tinsley changes aspects of the Nittany Lion passing attack that can alter how they generate explosive plays. Before that, T-Frank sets the scene by talking about the Penn State offensive line. With the significant change up front comes considerable uncertainty. He addresses what that future could look like and uses a recent memory to remind fans that things don't always work out the way you expect. He does this to temper expectations both ways about how that unit will perform next season. Secondarily, he reminds viewers of Sean Clifford's playing style. Unfortunately, Clifford's abilities aren't the perfect fit for how offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich wants to win. Still, the sixth-year quarterback had operated the offense effectively before injuries marred the second half of last year. T-Frank thinks the skill players Penn State has amassed with that in mind. he thinks they can win differently from last year's group, which can take the pressure off of Clifford while still generating big plays through the passing game. First, T-Frank explains how broken tackles by receivers have different values depending on where and how they happen and then shows Penn State's productivity from last season. After that, he shows how Tinsley fits into the picture. His skills differ from former receiver Jahan Dotson, and his playstyle could potentially fit better with Clifford. With a few tweaks to receiver Parker Washington's usage and improved play from the tight ends, Penn State's passing attack has a chance to be dangerous next season. #PennState #NittanyLions JOIN Blue White Illustrated: https://www.on3.com/teams/penn-state-nittany-lions/join/?plan=annual SUBSCRIBE to Blue White Illustrated on YouTube and enable alerts - new highlights and videos uploaded regularly: https://www.youtube.com/c/bluewhiteillustratedvideo?sub_confirmation Bookmark our homepage: https://www.on3.com/teams/penn-state-nittany-lions/ Subscribe to BWI Magazine and Newsletters: http://bluewhiteonline.com Download our podcasts: https://bluewhiteillustrated.podbean.com/ Like us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/BlueWhiteIllustrated/ Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/PennStateOn3 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Preserved From the Beast (21) (Audio) David Eells - 11/24/21 Last night The Lord brought some dreams to my remembrance and He wants us to do spiritual warfare in tongues and praise. We did this in our morning meeting and are asking you in larger UBM to join us. Please pray as you read this text below and, per Father's instructions, pray in tongues and Praise Him for victory... Isaac's dream below speaks of our method of confusing and confounding the witches in Google, the DS, our faction, and overseas ministries:    Witches Using Witchcraft to Spread the Plague Isaac Payne - 10/27/21 (David's notes in red) In this dream I was in some type of brick, government building about three stories high. I was translated to the second floor of this building where there were a bunch of desks and offices that didn't have walls; they were all in an open concept style. This room also joined another room that looked like a ball room used to host events.   There were women working feverishly, answering calls at the desks, and running around delivering supplies to other desks, and collaborating with the other female workers. It was utter pandemonium on the second floor. I remember phones were ringing off the hook as everyone of them were just a bunch of busy bodies. (This reminds me of Eve's dream of the workers in OUR kingdom working feverishly on the second floor of the "kingdom warehouse" to round up all the dogs, the persecutors of Jesus and His body in Psa 22. This represents the faction in Church and State.  Isaac's dream here is showing us the enemies of God are also working feverishly to fight against God's kingdom and His elect. Let us who have faith defend the Kingdom of God because the apostates will not.) Here is a portion of Eve's dream:   Factious Dogs in the DS and Church Rounded Up and Euthanized Eve Brast - 10/12/21  (David's notes in red) ... As the police officer began explaining I had a vision of the second floor of the warehouse which was very well lit. There were many offices and cubicles with law enforcement support personnel talking on phones and typing on computers and doing all kinds of office work. It was busy and bustling. I asked the officer what all the bustle was about and he said, “A directive has been handed down from the top to round up all the dogs.” (These dogs represent the faction in the Babylonish DS and the religious faction that both do witchcraft. They have conspired to crucify the righteous just as it was with Jesus and the Man-child  in  Psa. 22:12-22 Many bulls have compassed me; Strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. 13 They gape upon me with their mouth, As a ravening and a roaring lion. ... 16 For dogs have compassed me: A company of evil-doers have inclosed me; They pierced my hands and my feet. 17 I may count all my bones; They look and stare upon me. ... 20 Deliver my soul from the sword, My darling from the power of the dog.) Then I saw the woman in charge of carrying out this directive. (The woman represents the Bride, who in Esther as a type, is given authority by the King, representing Father God, to put Haman and his sons to death as well as all of the other enemies who have lifted up their hands against her to kill her and her people.)  She had a lot of authority from the top and was in charge of the second floor and all the law enforcement personnel. She was a thin woman with very straight hair that was shoulder length and she was standing in the middle of it all dressed in a women's business suit with her arms folded. (This woman is thin because she has gotten rid of all her excess flesh. Her hair is straight representing submission to Jesus, the Word, which is the straight and narrow way.)  Occasionally, I saw her bring out her right arm and point off into the distance with her pointer finger and I would see many law enforcement personnel going around the city and rounding up large groups of all different sizes and breeds of dogs. Back to Isaac's dream of the enemies side: As I continued to observe, I started seeing a few of these women workers slithering like snakes from one end of the room to the other. They slithered extremely fast and in straight lines using neither their hands nor feet. What they used to propel themselves while slithering was their long, black tongues. They would lick the floor as they slithered. (The only power they have is their witchcraft words and prayers.) At this point in time they could not see me as I was invisible to them. As I observed, I began to understand why everyone was working so feverishly in a group effort. They were in distress because the plague they previously released on the world did not take affect as they had hoped, and they were trying to conjure up the strength of this plague back to its original form. However, there was nothing they could do to bring back to life their original plan of mass destruction.  (Currently Biden's vaccine mandate is being struck down and ruled against by OSHA and the 5th and 6th district courts.  However the Biden regime ignored their rulings because the DS leftists are anarchists. In the state of Tennessee the Governor just passed a bill making the vaccine mandates illegal. This is beginning to happen in many other states too. Also pray for quick success, the  Nuremburg 2.0 trials have already been initiated with overwhelming evidence: A team of 1,000 lawyers and 10,000 medical experts have started the Nuremberg 2 Trial against World Leaders for Crimes Against Humanity – including their mandates of deadly Covid vaccines.) I then saw the witches divert to plan B. In a panic, they began to speak cursing over the public and then created a potion and poured the contents into a squirt bottle. (I remember seeing a glimpse of the periodic table and seeing the chemicals added together to create something called Thylutine or Toluene something in that regards I'm not sure. Whatever it was it did start with a T.) (This represents the worse plague that they are planning to replace CV-19.) I watched the witches spread out individually as each of them went to their own designated area. They began to spray many doorknobs in high traffic areas. The intent of these precise locations was because of the population density. The witches knew people would come into contact with the doorknobs and spread this conjured plague.  (The doorknobs represent opening and closing, binding and loosing. It is obvious that our power through these methods exceeds anything satan has but we must use it.  We have not because we ask not. Remember the witches in the Church and state are against the Christians and constantly try to destroy them. Also, naturally, It has been proven that they have created the vaccines to be able to penetrate the eyes, nasal membranes and even  penetrate the skin through aerosolized particles .) As I watched the contents come into contact with the doorknobs it began to instantly rust and corrode the door handles and doorknobs. Afterwards, I watched as black mold began to grow on the surfaces of everything the plague touched. (It was said earlier that the chemtrails which were making people sick had mold spores in it in order to make it pass from person to person through coughing.) The scene changed and I was back on the second floor of the building and the joy of the Lord instantaneously fell upon me in the midst of these atrocities. I began to praise, speak in tongues, and jump up and down thanking God  (appropriate for Thanksgiving )  for the day he had made and the provisions he has given. (Praise of God is how the enemies of Jehoshaphat and the Bride, Jerusalem, were defeated. He told them to send the praisers out ahead of the army and then God defeated the enemies of His people through their praises. 2Ch 20:14-25) This time the witches could see me as they were still slithering on the floor with their black tongues. I walked up to them with great boldness and started praising God in front of them.  I was saying, “This is the day the Lord has made! He is God and God alone!” I shouted many other praises in front of the witches. They instantly stopped their slithering and looked at me with total confusion.  One of the witches stood before me in shock. She had black purplish hair, pale skin and was wearing a long black dress, and a black pointed witch's hat. At this point, all their evil, feverish work halted. The entire floor of witches stood confounded and halted in their progress they had made spreading this potion or plague. (The angels go forth to confound the witchcraft. There are commonly 3 angels stationed in my house. One is named Jeruel who stands above me on the second floor with a jar of anointing oil that he pours on me. When we do spiritual warfare and praise he is wearing a black sash and holds a long golden sword. The brethren have seen these three go out to fight for the body as we pray and send them. Our praises give power to our cause and tongues give direction by the Holy Spirit who knows more than we do.) I walked up to the head witch and began to praise God in front of her. She couldn't slither anymore because she was confused and her attention was on me. She had blonde hair that seemed dyed, pale skin, pale blue eyes, a long black tongue, and wearing all black garments. She seemed to be younger; in her late 20's.  I looked at her and said, “Blessed be the God of all the universe! The earth is his footstool!” I was shouting and clapping; jumping up and down and smiling as His peace was upon me surpassing all understanding. She began to yell and argue with me saying, “Your God is not more powerful than mine! No, he's not!” She was incoherently babbling the same things over and over. (Praise is bragging on God and the demons hate it!) I looked right at her and said, “My God created your god and at no point did He intend to share his power with your god! My God is Sovereign, and the beginning and the end has already been fulfilled! Your god has already been judged!” Then I said one last thing to her, “You will submit to Jesus!” She couldn't even function for disbelief, confusion, and amazement. (Their god is satan and he has already been defeated.) The second floor of witches could not pick up where they left off conjuring their evil plague because I was praising God uncontrollably! The praising of God also fixed all the doorknobs that were saturated with this potion and all door knobs became as brand new. Praising God halted all their wicked plans! Then I woke up.  (Let's remember the power that is in our praises! The demons hate true praise that glorifies God. It will put them to flight every time!) Please join us in prayer and praise and in tongues concerning these things. Rom 8:26  And in like manner the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity: for we know not how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. The Praisers go first as when Jehoshaphat divided the 3 enemy armies. Bind the witches and their assassinations of God's people. Like in Eve's dream, we should send the angels to gather the dogs, representing the Elite, Communists, factions in Church and state to bind them into their holding place to await their judgment. The Supreme court is ruling on the 2020 election fraud now.    Pray for the failure of Covid Mandates. Breaking the witchcraft sent on people to force the Jab. Preservation of the righteous from the plagues that are to be released, by chemtrails, vaccines, and otherwise.  God said he would use this on the wicked and opposers of the kingdom. Break the power of curses against God's people.    The SMALLPOX BIOWAR: Globalists Prepare “Perfect” Scheme to Cover up Vaccine Deaths and Cancel Mid-Term Elections by Unleashing  a New, Deadly Epidemic Thursday, November 18, 2021 by: Mike Adams The good news is that the Biden vaccine mandate is almost certainly going to be struck down by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.    This will hand Biden a crushing defeat of his attempted agenda to mass exterminate the American people via “vaccine” bioweapons. The bad news is that once the vaccine mandate is struck down, globalists will be forced to resort to their next devastating strategy to achieve their goals of genocide and depopulation. It looks like their next weapon is going to be Marburg, Ebola or Smallpox. Smallpox is the most likely choice because it is extremely contagious and almost no one has immunity against it. Bill Gates has repeatedly warned — with a creepy grin — that America should be ready for a smallpox terrorism attack targeting US airports. When Bill Gates warns about something like this, it's usually because globalists are planning to carry it out. Yahoo News reported this week that vials labeled “smallpox” were discovered in a Merck laboratory, in violation of US law. In the continental United States, only the CDC's facility in Atlanta is authorized to store smallpox vials. So what is Merck — a vaccine manufacturer — doing with smallpox vials? You wouldn't be crazy to suppose they're working on the next big bioweapons release to generate another wave of profits from smallpox vaccines. But a smallpox release by the globalists accomplishes much more than just depopulation… Burying covid vaccine deaths and halting the 2022 mid-term elections The effect of a deliberate smallpox release by the anti-human globalists would be a covering up of covid vaccine deaths, which are already beginning to wildly accelerate. Millions of people will die around the world from covid vaccines in just the next six months as immune suppression, Antibody Dependent Enhancement and cancer tumors growths all accelerate. The globalist cabal is desperate to distract the world from the depopulation effects of the vaccine, so they need some larger mass death catastrophe to take the blame. Secondarily, a smallpox outbreak would also allow the criminals in D.C. to declare a national emergency and suspend the 2022 mid-term elections, where they are likely to be politically slaughtered. Current polls, if projected into election results, show that Democrats are very likely to lose the House, Senate and numerous state governorship and state legislatures, leaving Biden (or Harris) with no effective power other than unconstitutional executive decrees (which the courts keep shooting down). Thus, Democrats need a bigger catastrophe to cancel the 2022 elections. Smallpox (or Marburg) is their “perfect” choice, given that they have zero respect for human life and would sacrifice every last living American if doing so would keep them in power. They are like crazed, insane animals, willing to do absolutely anything to maintain their control. Bill Gates Paints a Picture Like “12 Monkeys” with Airport Release of Smallpox From Yahoo News: Bill Gates has warned governments to prepare for smallpox terror attacks and future pandemics by investing billions into research and development. The Microsoft founder suggested that the ‘germ games' could prepare nations for bio-terrorism such as smallpox attacks on airports. Mr Gates warned that bioterrorism caused epidemics could be worse than naturally occurring ones. Why did Bill Gates specifically choose smallpox and airports for his example? Because that's the most effective way for bioterrorists — i.e. depopulation globalists — to initiate their next biowar. It's a scene ripped right out of 12 Monkeys, the dystopian sci-fi film starring Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt. Furthermore, a globalist release of smallpox would likely trap many vaccine skeptics and anti-mask individuals who have become accustomed to taking few precautions in public. While “covid” turned out to be little more than a renamed flu, weaponized smallpox has at minimum a 30% mortality rate and can go much higher depending on its configuration. To survive smallpox, Americans would have to lock themselves down for an extended period of time… perhaps an entire year, with virtually no supplies of food, fuel, medicine, water or other essentials. Many people who have dismissed the severity of covid would inadvertently expose themselves to smallpox, with devastating consequences. The bigger the crisis, the more the powers that be can assert their false authority and deprive people of basic civil liberties (and human rights). That's why a smallpox deployment is the single most effective strategy that anti-human globalists can pursue right now to further enslave humanity and crush the United States of America. Will they really pull the trigger on this and release it? We have no way of knowing in advance, but we've already seen their willingness to unleash other horrendous weapons against humanity that are resulting in mass death across the planet (i.e. spike protein “vaccine” injections that are biowarfare murder weapons). According to OurWorldInData.org, 52.4% of the world's population has received a covid vaccine. That's over 4 billion people, and the number is growing by nearly 30 million per day. With a 50% long-term fatality rate from these vaccines — spanning short term, medium term and long term causes of death — it means globalists are effectively slaughtering 15 million human beings per day. That's TWO Nazi Holocausts each day, every day, as the vaccine holocaust continues to mass murder humanity. All the deaths aren't instantaneous, so it will take years for these numbers to be fully realized, but once a person is injected, their death clock is already counting down. (Get full details on the smallpox scenario in today's Situation Update podcast via Brighteon.com:)  A Worse Beast Plague Coming Upon the Earth   Eve Brast - 4/11/21 (David's notes in red) I dreamed that I was high up in the sky, among the clouds, viewing a large grey plane frozen in suspended animation. I could see through the walls of the plane. (The grey plane suspended in animation could represent a DS plan of the enemy that is about to be activated that will bring more death and control over the population.) I saw the pilot of the plane standing in the cockpit. He had a grey flight suit on with red, white and blue strips of stitching that ran vertically down the sleeves and pant legs of the flight suit. He had just finished placing a white fighter pilot helmet on his head in preparation to take control of the cockpit and begin flying the plane. (The gray flight suit with red, white and blue trim represents death coming to America probably in many forms; through vac/cines, chemtrail spraying, and rebellious uprisings rooted in anarchy and patriotic spirits etc. The red, white and blue on the suit represents that these are DS American traitors. The white pilot helmet with internal communication represents a programed mind for only one cause. These spirits and their multi-purposed missions are about to be unleashed on this country for a time to bring chastening, repentance, a Red Sea judgment on these enemies and then revival.) I saw that the pilot had the face of a demon. It looked black and leathery like a bat. (They claim that bats were the spreaders of the C-19. Bats are blind beasts who fly in darkness.) He had pointed ears that stuck straight up and a mouth full of very sharp, white teeth with vampire fangs. His eyes were reptilian with slits for pupils. (Vampires suck the life blood out of their victims and turn them into dumbed down, compliant, walking dead zombies. This DS death shot mandate is literally doing this to peoples blood and brains. The injections suck the hemoglobin right out of the red blood cells making a person hypoxic and oxygen deprived. They also have brain eating prions that cross the blood brain barrier easily and are causing people to have an onset of Dementia and Alzheimer's disease.) He sat down in the pilots seat and took control of the steering apparatus of the plane and the controls. The plane began to move through the sky again. As the demon pilot pushed a button inside the cockpit, I watched as the plane sprayed out multitudes of tiny mechanical robots that had spider bodies but the faces on all the robot spiders had the same demon face as the pilot. (This spirit will replicate itself and give many the spiritual mark of the beast; a mind of the flesh and works of the flesh. Tiny robotic enemies take over the minds of men. We now know that these tiny robots are Graphene Oxide nano-particles that self assemble when exposed to external frequencies from smart phones and 5G towers. They are technology given to men by demons.) He was spraying them down upon the earth below to go throughout the earth and harm and kill the people. I knew in the dream that this was a much worse plague or judgment that was being unleashed upon the people.  (This can only harm those who dwell upon the earth and are earthly. God's Bride and the elect who dwell in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus will, “...only look with their eyes and see the reward of the wicked” as it promises in Psalm 91.) Then I woke up.    Escaping the Beast Plagues Annette Rich - February of 1994 (David's notes in red) I did not want to get up, but the Spirit of the Lord would not let me stay in bed, and urged me to get up and write down this dream:  I dreamed there was an order given that everyone was to register. All people with degrees and knowledge had to declare these facts. (This is what the communists do when they take over. Could this registration be the vac/cine passport that the DS wants us to have to be able to participate in the global economy and travel? Also, it has already been written in the Patriot Act that was passed after 911 that FEMA would required everyone with special skills and medical knowledge to report these facts to the government in preparation for involuntary recruitment against the will of the people.) We then had to be sure our homes were airtight around the doors and windows. (Representing the lockdowns that occurred during 2020 and future lockdowns due to greater plagues being released upon the population. Covid 21 was found in the Evergreen ship. The DS are not only depopulationists but they need money that comes from their never ending vac/ci/nes. This will achieve complete and total compliance of the people, eventually forcing them and funneling them into the Beast system before they die.) Then we had to go rally at an open-air stadium. There were many, many people. (The masses are being gathered unto the Beast and his kingdom.) All of a sudden I started to say, "Make it short. Make it short". Others joined in and this saying became a throng.  (Mat. 24:22-24, And except those days had been shortened, no flesh would have been saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. 23 Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is the Christ, or, Here; believe it not. 24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. 25 Behold, I have told you beforehand.) I needed to get out of there, and started to make comments such as, "I am God's child, the air is purified around me. The angels of the Lord are around me. The blood of Jesus saves me". (Remember this when sprayed by the chemtrail plagues to poison bodies, food, water, etc,)  I had other people around me and many behind me, some I knew, and others I did not. (The multitudes need to know how to escape the curse through repentance and faith in the promises.) Birds fell straight out of the sky, dead. People fell dead and many were getting weak as we marched straight on.  I kept repeating the above sayings. ( Psalm 91:5-11, Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, Nor for the arrow that flieth by day; 6 For the pestilence that walketh in darkness, Nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. 7 A thousand shall fall at thy side, And ten thousand at thy right hand; But it shall not come nigh thee. 8 Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold, And see the reward of the wicked. 9 For thou, O Jehovah, art my refuge! Thou hast made the Most High thy habitation; 10 There shall no evil befall thee, Neither shall any plague come nigh thy tent. 11 For he will give his angels charge over thee, To keep thee in all thy ways.) Here and there someone said, "I can't do it anymore!” (Many who start out with us will fall away from the faith and perish in these end times.) I kept walking and said, "That is not a worthy statement of a child of God! Repeat what I say", and then I would repeat the above and other scriptures. I was urged from within to keep my eyes straight ahead and not upon death. I urged others to do the same. (We must keep our eyes on the promises of the Word of God and not on the curses all around us. Our eye must be single.) There was a white film coming down over everything. It covered trees and was almost illuminative. It also felt like it was giving health, strength, and light, and helped us to walk ahead. (The Lord will supernaturally counteract the bad chemtrails with His Spirit and discernment for those of us who love His truth and Word. He will light our way through the dark times of the Beast.) Now we are starting to see why Deagle.com's predictions on population in the USA may be true after all! This Report was last updated on Feb. 26th of 2020:  https://i2.wp.com/allnewspipeline.com/images/deagel_us_forecast_change.gif?resize=500%2C384   We need to be ready for this by staying CLOSE TO JESUS at all times in prayer, seeking His wisdom and discernment especially now! That's why I would stay prayed up because we never know what's coming next and we don't want to be deceived. New Leadership Spiritual and Physical Eve Brast - 11/11/16 (David's notes in red) Here is a portion ...David was dressed in a ivory-colored suit and white shirt. There were about 15 or 20 government agents gathered all around the podium. (The spiritual government agents are the angels.) The agents were waiting for President-elect David  (Representing the Man-child ministries) to give them their orders. (To arrest the criminals in the government and Church among other things.  This is the time when the criminals will be rounded up.) All over the stage, among the agents, were many empty cardboard boxes that had been opened up and were ready to be packed up. As David stood at the podium, he began motioning with his index finger to each agent and giving them their orders one at a time. (This is not done in the physical but by authority in the spiritual realm.) I understood that he was sending them throughout Washington DC to find all the evil, wicked people in the government and flush them out of their hiding places and "send them packing". (I then I had a vision of corrupt government officials hiding under their desks in fetal positions. They were terrified and paralyzed with fear and couldn't function anymore.) (Let us, through the authority given to us, root out the corruption and send them packing.) ... Father is confirming that the body of David has power to send forth the angels to expose (and eject) the evil. He is answering our prayers of faith. The angels fulfill what the saints speak in agreement with God. {Heb.1:13} But of which of the angels hath he said at any time, Sit thou on my right hand, Till I make thine enemies the footstool of thy feet? {14} Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to do service for the sake of them that shall inherit salvation? Notice the Lord rules through His true saints and angels. {Psa.103:19} Jehovah hath established his throne in the heavens; And his kingdom ruleth over all. {20} Bless Jehovah, ye his angels, That are mighty in strength, that fulfil his word, Hearkening unto the voice of his word. {21} Bless Jehovah, all ye his hosts, Ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure. {22} Bless Jehovah, all ye his works, In all places of his dominion: Bless Jehovah, O my soul. Let us exercise our authority over the evil in all branches of this government. We are the salt of the earth. If we lose our savor, we are good for nothing but to be trodden under the foot of men. {Luk.10:19} Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall in any wise hurt you. {Mat.18:18} Verily I say unto you, what things soever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and what things soever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. {Psa.149:6} Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, And a two-edged sword in their hand; {7} To execute vengeance upon the nations, And punishments upon the peoples; {8} To bind their kings with chains, And their nobles with fetters of iron; {9} To execute upon them the judgment written: This honor have all his saints. Praise ye Jehovah. Pray and agree with me. We command and cast down the demons of faction, witchcraft, Satanism, murder, assassination, hatred, wrath, anarchy, lying, slandering, manipulation, destruction, deception in the government and over the peoples. We send the angels forth to cast down your plots and schemes, Satan, and all your helpers. We command the fear of God upon the wicked. Paranoia and confusion is in their camps. We pray for protection and wisdom for Trump and the Alliance. God will be with you.  Dream of Reconciliation or Judgment David Eells - 11/20/21  I want to emphasize the importance of getting rid of unforgiveness so that the Lord will hear our prayers and give us the benefits of the Kingdom people.  On Nov 20th I had a very real dream. I was telling many people to hurry and make things right with those they were offended with or that were offended by them. [I knew this did not include those who were offended with the gospel or correction for their sins as it was with Jesus and John the Baptist]   I was in the top of a tall building and I was there to observe and report on the coming judgement on the wicked. Then an earthquake came and cracked the building down the middle. (I believe this judgment represents the plagues that the Deep State is going to release because we have dreams of many bitter people dying of a plague.  But also great earthquakes are coming with the Lord in His Man-child.)  As I observed, I saw and felt the side of the building under me begin to fall outward towards the ground. Just when it reached the ground, I jumped off totally unscratched and charged up and empowered to do the Lord's work. I observed that the people in that side of the building were all dead.  We received a similar dream of a house, in the earlier part of the faction, that was cracking down the middle and about to break and fall off with no support beneath it.  The people on the left were stunted and angry at the people on the right who were tall and glorious. There was a door between the two sides but there was no knob on the leftist side of the door and they were mad they could not get at the people on the right. The people on the right had no knob either to be able to help the leftists who had to forgive or die. end of dream (In this case the faction was judged but in my latest dream more than just the faction were judged. Jesus said if we dont forgive we are not forgiven.) Then I went back to the part of the building that was still standing to witness to the survivors. They were all amazed at my testimony and greatly effected by it. (I believe this represents the plagues the Deep State is going to release, but also great earthquakes are coming with the Lord in His Man-child.)    Mat 5:21-26 Ye have heard that it was said to them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment:  22  but I say unto you, that every one who is angry with his brother shall be in danger of the judgment; and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council; and whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of the hell of fire.  23  If therefore thou art offering thy gift at the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee,  24  leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way, first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.  25  Agree with thine adversary quickly, while thou art with him in the way; lest haply the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.  26  Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou have paid the last farthing.) Michael just related a dream he had on the same night that I had mine above, where I was driving a large bus over a suspension bridge which began to shake as with an earthquake and when it stopped I then drove on off the bridge.   Bridge Over Troubled Waters Michael Hare - 11/20/21  (David's notes in red) I dreamed David was driving an empty, red and black Trail-ways look-alike bus and I was standing beside him. (An exhortation that we have a need for  Intercessors and warriors to do this job.)  We were going over a large suspension bridge. (Our work is between here and overseas.) The bridge started shaking violently like it would in a high wind or an earthquake.  (But the bridge stood fast.) David pulled the bus over after a bit and stopped around 100 feet or so from the end of the bridge and I got out to check things out while the bridge was still shaking.  After a bit, David drove the bus off the bridge to the other side and I ran off the bridge behind him. There was no harm to either one of us or the bus.  In the next scene of the dream I knew we were in tribulation. (Not necessarily THE Tribulation)  David and I walked up to two evil gangs of men. (Gangs are known for being very territorial like the denominational preachers who fight the reformers over proselytes. These represent factions and divisions in the church. They're also known to be out-laws but so are apostate preachers.) David walked into the midst of one gang and I did the same with the other gang; speaking audibly in tongues. The tongues confused the men. (Speaking in tongues is to let the Spirit say and command what is needed. Rom 8:26  And in like manner the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity: for we know not how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.) We would boldly walk up to one gang member and touch him and the power of God would set them free. Then another and another until all of them had been set free. (The rival gangs were restored together. The two gangs that were restored were spiritually typed in the Old Testament as Judah [the Spirit Filled Church] and Israel [the non Spirit filled Church]. Judah had the temple of the Spirit's presence. In Ezekiel 37 they were restored from their wars through the David ministries to become one flock with one shepherd.) There was one man, in particular, who might have been a leader, laying across, what looked like, a pallet of tan looking sacks of something. He was cursing me and when I touched him, a big smile broke out on his face and he was completely delivered. There was laughter and love prevalent in both gangs when God had set them free.  (The demons flee. Submit to God, resist the devil and he will flee.) They were cursing us one minute and loving us the next. It was God setting them free and working His gracious love into these tribulation marauder gangs. Then I woke up. These are the verses I got by faith at random for this dream… Luke 24:49-53  And behold, I send forth the promise of my Father upon you  (They will be filled with the Holy Spirit and peace.): but tarry ye in the city, until ye be clothed with power from on high.  (50)  And he led them out until they were over against Bethany: and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them.  (51)  And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he parted from them, and was carried up into heaven.  (52)  And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy:  (53)  and were continually in the temple, blessing God.  (As one people)    UBM Protected by Special OPs Angels Eve Brast - 6/1/21 (David's notes in red) I dreamed that local UBM was encamped outdoors near the large, grey, stone wall that I've seen in previous dreams. (This wall represents sanctification which separates us from the world and their wicked practices. We are the stones that are fitted together tightly and they are grey representing our crucified life of death to self.)  Our camp was at peace and was lit by a light that came from overhead.  (The righteous have a "covenant of peace” through the light from Heaven called the Word and the Holy Spirit.  Isa 54:10  For the mountains may depart, and the hills be removed; but my lovingkindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall my covenant of peace be removed, saith Jehovah that hath mercy on thee.  Num 25:12-13  Wherefore say, Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace:  13  and it shall be unto him, and to his seed after him, the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he was jealous for his God, and made atonement for the children of Israel.   Eze 37:26  Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. )  We had the white pot blessing tables set up and our chairs for a meeting. (White tables represents feeding on the pure Word. The wicked faction hate the Word and the God who wrote it and the people who stand for it, for it convicts them of sin. Therefore in Isa 57: 21 There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. )   Everyone was happy and in peaceful fellowship with each other. (Psalm 133:1-3, Behold, how good and how pleasant it is For brethren to dwell together in unity! 2 It is like the precious oil upon the head, That ran down upon the beard, Even Aaron's beard; That came down upon the skirt of his garments; 3 Like the dew of Hermon, That cometh down upon the mountains of Zion: For there Jehovah commanded the blessing, Even life for evermore.)  (“Peaceful fellowship" will be God's gift to Zion, the Bride.  Isa 54:10  For the mountains may depart, and the hills be removed; but my lovingkindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall my covenant of peace be removed, saith Jehovah that hath mercy on thee. …  13  And all thy children shall be taught of Jehovah; and great shall be the peace of thy children. Isa 55:12  For ye shall go out with joy (From Babylonish bondage), and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing; and all the trees of the fields shall clap their hands.  Isa 57:2  He entereth into peace; they rest in their beds, each one that walketh in his uprightness. … 21  There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.) The factious people, who had been driven from us in bitterness and hatred because of their own sin, were camped about 100 yards or so North of our location. (100 here represents 100% complete separation from Zion, the Bride, whom they consider their enemies because of their demon possession.)  (The beast enemy attacks Zion from the North. Jer.6:22-30, Thus saith Jehovah, Behold, a people cometh from the north country; and a great nation shall be stirred up from the uttermost parts of the earth. 23 They lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy ; their voice roareth like the sea, and they ride upon horses, every one set in array, as a man to the battle, against thee, O daughter of Zion . … 27 I have made thee a trier and a fortress among my people; that thou mayest know and try their way.  ( Mar 12:10  Have ye not read even this scripture: The stone which the builders rejected, The same was made the head of the corner.)  28 They are all grievous revolters, going about with slanders; they are brass and iron: they all of them deal corruptly. 29 The bellows blow fiercely; the lead is consumed of the fire: in vain do they go on refining; for the wicked are not plucked away. 30 Refuse silver shall men them, because Jehovah hath rejected them.  (The northern army who attacks Zion will be destroyed.  Psa 101:5  Whoso privily slandereth his neighbor, him will I destroy…   Joel 2:15-17  Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly; 16 gather the people, sanctify the assembly, assemble the old men, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts; let the bridegroom go forth from his chamber, and the bride out of her closet. (The Bride and Groom will be revealed) 17 Let the priests, the ministers of Jehovah, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O Jehovah, and give not thy heritage to reproach, that the nations should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the peoples, Where is their God? 18 Then was Jehovah jealous for his land, and had pity on his people. … 20  but I will remove far off from you the northern army, and will drive it into a land barren and desolate, its forepart into the eastern sea, and its hinder part into the western sea; and its stench shall come up, and its ill savor shall come up, because it hath done great things.) It was dark and shadowy over and around their camp and everything was chaotic and in disarray. I could hear shouting and gunfire with mini explosions and the whiz of bullets flying. (It reminded me of the night fire training courses that we practiced on in Basic Training when I joined the Army. Isa. 57:14-21, And he will say, Cast ye up, cast ye up, prepare the way, take up the stumbling-block out of the way of my people. 15 For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite. … 19  I create the fruit of the lips: Peace, peace, to him that is far off and to him that is near, saith Jehovah; and I will heal him. 20 But the wicked are like the troubled sea; for it cannot rest, and its waters cast up mire and dirt. 21 There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.) In this dream, I was standing at the perimeter of the UBM camp, looking out, across the way, to the factious camp. It was like I was seeing in the Spirit because no one else in the UBM camp was aware (or seemed concerned) of what was happening. (It is very peaceful to miss out on the whole battle while the angels take out the enemy.) (Father gives us prophetic dreams and revelations to be able to warn our brethren so that we can do spiritual warfare against the demons in our enemies.) I was watching a bunch of tracer bullets flying towards our direction and orange basket balls, with bombs hidden inside them, being launched towards us as well. (The basketball bombs represent the juvenile mentality of the faction and their slander and games they like to play.)  But they were all being supernaturally stopped. They were either falling short of our camp or were being turned back upon the factious camp by 2 Special OPs soldiers (Angels) that stood guarding the UBM camp. (The Lord said of those who curse us, “I will curse those who curse thee”. Notice that the wicked curse themselves. We are not to personally curse our enemies but to pray for them.   Rom 12:14  Bless them that persecute you; bless, and curse not. … 19  Avenge not yourselves, beloved, but give place unto the wrath of God: for it is written, Vengeance belongeth unto me; I will recompense, saith the Lord.  20  But if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him to drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head. God can speak prophetically through the righteous to judge the wicked as He has done all through scriptures.  The Spirit of God spoke through Paul to turn apostates over to Satan.  1Co 5:5   to deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.  1Ti 1:20  of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I delivered unto Satan, that they might be taught not to blaspheme (Meaning to speak against God or others). We should not do this to defend ourselves or to fight with others. We should be neutral in this regard. Also we do not need to turn one over to Satan when we can obviously see that they have already been turned over by God.  The Spirit of God spoke curses on blasphemers or railers through David and they are still true.  Psa 109:1 For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. Hold not thy peace, O God of my praise;  2  For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of deceit have they opened against me: They have spoken unto me with a lying tongue.  3  They have compassed me about also with words of hatred, And fought against me without a cause.  4  For my love they are my adversaries: But I give myself unto prayer.  5  And they have rewarded me evil for good, And hatred for my love.  6  Set thou a wicked man over him; And let an adversary (Satan) stand at his right hand. (turned over to Satan) 7  When he is judged, let him come forth guilty; And let his prayer be turned into sin.  8  Let his days be few; And let another take his office (Satan entered Judas). (To the railers and cursers God spoke in) 17  Yea, he loved cursing, and it came unto him (Their curses returned upon their own heads as the angels were doing); And he delighted not in blessing, and it was far from him.  18  He clothed himself also with cursing as with his garment, And it came into his inward parts like water, And like oil into his bones.  19  Let it be unto him as the raiment wherewith he covereth himself, And for the girdle wherewith he is girded continually.  20  This is the reward of mine adversaries from Jehovah, And of them that speak evil against my soul. …  28  Let them curse, but bless thou: When they arise, they shall be put to shame, But thy servant shall rejoice. Isa 54:17  No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn.  [So the wicked who judge the righteous will condemn themselves because of this promise from God.] This is the heritage of the servants of Jehovah, and their righteousness which is of me, saith Jehovah. The 2 Special OPs soldiers had short military haircuts and were wearing the standard issue, camouflage, billed caps on their heads. and were dressed in grey, urban combat BDUs (Battle Dress Uniforms). They had matching backpacks with supplies and weapons to counter the attacks of our enemies. I knew immediately that they were angels because of their large, pure white wings that were spread out to each side underneath their backpacks. (A symbol that people recognize as angels)  Their wings were also part of the protection barrier that they provided for the UBM camp. (Psalm 91:4,  He will cover thee with his pinions, And under his wings shalt thou take refuge: His truth is a shield and a buckler.) Since their backs were to me, I couldn't see exactly what they were doing to repel the enemy fire or what weapons they were using upon the enemies camp; all I saw was their arm movements which indicated some type of invisible bow and arrow weaponry.  (Psalm 7:9-16,  O let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, but establish thou the righteous: For the righteous God trieth the minds and hearts. 10 My shield is with God, Who saveth the upright in heart. 11 God is a righteous judge, Yea, a God that hath indignation every day. 12 If a man turn not, he will whet his sword; He hath bent his bow, and made it ready. 13 He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death; He maketh his arrows fiery shafts . 14 Behold, he travaileth with iniquity; Yea, he hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood. 15 He hath made a pit, and digged it, And is fallen into the ditch which he made. 16 His mischief shall return upon his own head, And his violence shall come down upon his own pate.) I was noticing that every time the enemy launched a ‘basketball bomb' towards us, the angels would hold up their hands in a 'stop gesture' and the bombs would reverse course and fall back into the enemies camp and explode upon them causing much chaos and casualties. The 2 angels looked like traditional traffic cops but instead of directing traffic they were directing the bullets and the bombs. (Like Daniel in the lions den was kept safe while his enemies who plotted against him and their families were devoured by them. Psa 141:9-10  Keep me from the snare which they have laid for me, And from the gins of the workers of iniquity.  10  Let the wicked fall into their own nets, Whilst that I withal escape.   Psa 140:9-11  As for the head of those that compass me about, Let the mischief of their own lips cover them.  10  Let burning coals fall upon them: Let them be cast into the fire, Into deep pits, whence they shall not rise.  11  An evil speaker shall not be established in the earth: Evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him.  Psa 35:7-8  For without cause have they hid for me their net in a pit; Without cause have they digged a pit for my soul.  8  Let destruction come upon him unawares; And let his net that he hath hid catch himself: With destruction let him fall therein.   Psa 37:14-15  The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, To cast down the poor and needy, To slay such as are upright in the way.  15  Their sword shall enter into their own heart, And their bows shall be broken.  Psa 57:6  They have prepared a net for my steps; My soul is bowed down: They have digged a pit before me; They are fallen into the midst thereof themselves. Selah.  Pro 26:27  Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein; And he that rolleth a stone, it shall return upon him.  Pro 28:10  Whoso causeth the upright to go astray in an evil way, He shall fall himself into his own pit; But the perfect shall inherit good.  Mat 7:1-3  Judge not, that ye be not judged.  2  For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured unto you.  3  And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Most of what the factious throw at us is demons of faction, witchcraft, slander, etc. but whatever they throw it returns upon them because God said in  Gal 6:7  Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.) After witnessing this, I walked over to David and was reporting to him everything that I was seeing. I don't remember what David replied but he seemed pleased that the angels were doing a good job of protecting us. Then I woke up.  Psalm 91:1-12, He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. 2 I will say of Jehovah, He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in whom I trust. 3 For he will deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, And from the deadly pestilence. 4 He will cover thee with his pinions, And under his wings shalt thou take refuge: His truth is a shield and a buckler. 5 Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, Nor for the arrow that flieth by day; 6 For the pestilence that walketh in darkness, Nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. 7 A thousand shall fall at thy side, And ten thousand at thy right hand; But it shall not come nigh thee. 8 Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold, And see the reward of the wicked. 9 For thou, O Jehovah, art my refuge! Thou hast made the Most High thy habitation; 10 There shall no evil befall thee, Neither shall any plague come nigh thy tent. 11 For he will give his angels charge over thee, To keep thee in all thy ways. 12 They shall bear thee up in their hands, Lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.   Select LanguageAfrikaansAlbanianAmharicArabicArmenianAzerbaijaniBasqueBelarusianBengaliBosnianBulgarianCatalanCebuanoChichewaChinese (Simplified)Chinese (Traditional)CorsicanCroatianCzechDanishDutchEsperantoEstonianFilipinoFinnishFrenchFrisianGalicianGeorgianGermanGreekGujaratiHaitian CreoleHausaHawaiianHebrewHindiHmongHungarianIcelandicIgboIndonesianIrishItalianJapaneseJavaneseKannadaKazakhKhmerKinyarwandaKoreanKurdish (Kurmanji)KyrgyzLaoLatinLatvianLithuanianLuxembourgishMacedonianMalagasyMalayMalayalamMalteseMaoriMarathiMongolianMyanmar (Burmese)NepaliNorwegianOdia (Oriya)PashtoPersianPolishPortuguesePunjabiRomanianRussianSamoanScots GaelicSerbianSesothoShonaSindhiSinhalaSlovakSlovenianSomaliSpanishSundaneseSwahiliSwedishTajikTamilTatarTeluguThaiTurkishTurkmenUkrainianUrduUyghurUzbekVietnameseWelshXhosaYiddishYorubaZulu Powered by Translate Printer-friendly version

Yaro Starak is the co-founder of InboxDone dot com, an email management company with a team of 25+ serving clients including restaurant owners, venture capitalists, accountants, doctors, lawyers, real estate agents, car retailers, online coaches and more. Yaro has made 30+ angel investments in tech startups including Steezy, LeadIQ, Fluent Forever, FitBod and Nutrisense, has property investments in Canada and Ukraine, and in partnership built a 3.6MW solar farm. During the mid-2000s Yaro sold his first company, BetterEdit.com, then built an online education business, Blog Mastermind, selling over $2 Million of his books and online courses, as he traveled the world, living in 26 different cities. Yaro has been featured in SkyNews, Forbes, Entrepreneur Magazine, Huffington Post, Business Insider, Foundr and hundreds of media outlets and events.   Most passionate about I'm passionate about my own company right now, InboxDone. I'm also passionate about angel investing, which is something I've done more of recently. It's exposure to great ideas and great people. I have a podcast as well. I love doing podcast interviews with exciting and interesting people. Yaro's career and story When I was 18 years old, I entered university. It was the dot-com boom. I already knew I don't want to have a job, a boss, an alarm clock that would force me to wake up at a certain time, a cap on my income potential. I just wasn't sure how to make enough money to survive given that I didn't want those things. So, I knew that entrepreneurship was the likely path. With the dot-com boom happening and me entering university, I was given access to the internet. I was constantly exposed to ideas on digital space. So, I started a website. It was more of a hobby about a card game I played called Magic: The Gathering. I made some money from advertising. Eventually, I had a little e-commerce store selling the cards and learned a lot. After graduation, I started what I call my first real business. It was called Better Edit and it was an academic editing service that grew into a full-time income for me. Most importantly, it was a digital business that I could travel with. Basically, I could do what I had always dreamed about—not have a boss, live where I wanted, and be independent. Best advice for entrepreneurs Even today, with our current business, it's about the customer and figuring out not just what they want, but the psychology behind how they're dealing with that problem. You have to actually meet your customers where they are, then present information that gets their attention. Secondarily, you have to present an alternative pattern or way of doing something to solve their problems. The biggest, most critical failure with customers I had a company that I didn't mention in the story because it was a failure. It was an advertising management company that I started as a proper startup. I got two co-founders and we were attempting to essentially build a platform that would help us. We started building a software platform but I didn't really realize and understand what the customer base needed. They were just so far away from being capable of doing that. Ultimately, we couldn't help them solve the problems and we didn't have a workable business. Biggest success with customers To me, meeting the need of helping the customer break free and delegating is the biggest customer success. Talking about the business too. It's not always the nuts and bolts. It's the idea that, by delegating, you get to focus on your creative genius or your family, or you get to focus on exercise and health where these things may have been neglected because you were too busy doing all the everyday routine tasks, including email and your calendar. Yaro's recommendation of a tool It's more about my team managing our customers than me because I'm on the marketing side and my team...

In Lübbecke/Germany based producer and label owner Nico Jütte made his first own productions at the age of 16 when he was still at school. He discovered music early on as a creative way of expression and personal processing of emotions and life events. His musical spectrum is mainly in the field of melodic house / techno and indie dance. His songs are often melancholy and thoughtful, but always in the clear 4/4 bar and kept danceable around the 125BPM. ABOUT LABEL: After building up several connections to labels, DJs and producers around the globe, he was looking for artists from his region. However, his home is more known to its local businesses in the field of industry, tobacco, beer and gambling. Electronic music is found only a few in the immediate vicinity but there were artists, they just have to be found. Taking this into account, Nico Jütte founded his own music label called "SoundOptix" in 2019. The concept of the Labesl is very simple. Instead of trying to establish itself in selected genres and sub genres, the primary goal is to serve all genres of electronic dance music. Most important rule: Everything is allowed as long as it can be danced on the dancefloor. Secondarily, it is about offering artists from Nicos home region an international platform and possibly co-operating with other artists and labels around the globe in order to create more musical relevance for the artists of his homeland. TRACKLIST: Jütte & Following Light - Journey Riigs - Origins Azpecialguest - Avatar Chris Miyagi & Jütte - Journey of Friendship (Daredevil (AR) Remix) Tom Fält - Drive Barlex - Helix Jütte & Following Light - Zodiacal Light Chris klein - Sphäre JMesa - Boiling Stream DAREDEVIL (AR) - Sun After Rain Masqueraze - Tales of Alipure Jail

Our analyst's equity positioning models have held up well and we continue to rely on an understanding of historical cycles as we move through this mid-cycle transition. Chief Investment Officer Mike Wilson explains.----- Transcript -----Welcome to Thoughts on the Market. I'm Mike Wilson, Chief Investment Officer and Chief U.S. Equity Strategist for Morgan Stanley. Along with my colleagues bringing you a variety of perspectives, I'll be talking about the latest trends in the financial marketplace. It's Monday, September 27th, at 11:30a.m. in New York. So let's get after it. Our equity strategy process has several key components. Most importantly, we focus on the fundamentals of growth and valuation to determine whether the overall market is attractive and which sectors and stocks look the best. The rate of change on growth is more important than the absolute level, and we use a market-based equity risk premium framework that works well as long as you apply the correct regime when using it. In that regard, we're an avid student of market cycles and believe historical analogs can be helpful. For example, the mid-cycle transition narrative that has worked so well this year is derived directly from our study of historical, economic and market cycles. The final component we spend a lot of time studying is price. This is known as technical analysis. Markets aren't always efficient, but we believe they are often very good leading indicators for the fundamentals - the ultimate driver of value. This is especially true if one looks at the internal movements and relative strength of individual securities. In short, we find these internals to be much more helpful than simply looking at the major averages. This year, we think the process has lived up to its promise, with the price action lining up nicely with the fundamental backdrop. More specifically, the large cap quality leadership since March is signaling what we believe is about to happen - decelerating growth and tightening financial conditions. The question for investors at this point is whether the price action has fully discounted those outcomes already, or not. Speaking of price, equity markets sold off sharply last Monday on concerns about a large Chinese property developer bankruptcy. While our house view is that it likely won't lead to a major financial contagion like the Global Financial Crisis a decade ago, it will probably weigh on China growth for the next few quarters. This means that the growth deceleration we were already expecting could be a bit worse. The other reason equity markets were soft early last week had to do with concern about the Fed articulating its plan to taper asset purchases later this year, and perhaps even moving up the timing of rate hikes. On that score, the Fed did not disappoint, as they essentially told us to expect the taper to begin in December. The surprise was the speed in which they expect to be done tapering - by mid 2022. This is about a quarter sooner than the market had been anticipating and increases the odds for a rate hike in the second half of '22. After the Fed meeting on Wednesday, equity markets rallied as bonds sold off sharply. Real 10-year yields were up 11bps in two days and are now up 31bps in just eight weeks. That's a meaningful tightening of financial conditions and it should weigh on asset price valuations, including equities. It also has big implications for what should work at the sector and style level. In short, higher real rates should mean lower equity prices. Secondarily, it may also mean value over growth and small caps over Nasdaq, even as the overall equity market goes lower. This would mean a doubly difficult investment environment, given how most are positioned. For the past month, our strategy has been to favor a barbell of defensive quality sectors like healthcare and staples, with financials. The defensive stocks should hold up better as earnings revisions start to come under pressure from decelerating growth and higher costs, while financials can benefit from the higher interest rate environment. Last week, this barbell outperformed the broader index. On the other side of the ledger is consumer discretionary stocks, which remain vulnerable to a payback in demand from last year's over consumption. Within that bucket, we still favor services over goods where there remains some pent-up demand in our view. Thanks for listening. If you enjoy the show, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and share Thoughts on the Market with a friend or colleague today.

A case study example on using postcards to advertise in your business. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLZJWOrVXPw Transcription Postcard marketing tips. Hi I'm Brian Pombo, welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live. I want to talk a little bit about postcards specifically for marketing. This is one of these oversized postcards and kind of talk about the direction you can go, just a few tips that you can work with here. So one of the things is if you're using any type of direct mail postcards, you just have to think about the person on the other side who's receiving it, and what their thought pattern is and you got to think about it for yourself. For one thing, it's the thing about postcards, you notice that nobody really sends postcards anymore, like personally, one on one you don't see them that often. Maybe you do. I don't see it that often. You could still purchase them from some places, touristy areas will still sell postcards, but it seems like most people buy them for themselves and rarely send them anymore. But maybe it's just me, I'd love to find out from you,, do you still get postcards? It's tough to send a postcard and not have it be known to be a commercial right off the bat, right? The real question is that the trick that I think when it comes to a postcard is can you hold back what the postcard is about or can you say what the postcard is about so quickly that they read it? Real quick they get the point, they can read more if they want, but they're already left with something with that first sentence, those first few words are they getting the idea, if you've got a deeper idea, then the best thing to do is to hide what the postcard is about. So it actually means the opposite of what you would think it would mean. It means fewer pictures, fewer graphics, fewer things that will give away, and more words. Because it causes people to have to read more words, to get to the point because not a lot of people, most people are not going to throw something away right off the bat. Now if they see it's a postcard, it's got a bunch of words, I know a lot of people will just take it and toss it. But there's going to be a number of them, specifically depending on which words are the biggest on whether those words attract them further. So if you're looking to get a certain sector of your market to pay attention, then you got to make sure those biggest words are the words that are going to catch their eye that calls them. And so this is an interesting one very typical of postcard marketing. But there are a couple of good things on here. So the first thing I look at is what are the things that draw my attention? And the real question is, is whether they want the things to draw your attention or not? So the first words I see on here, if you can see it, well I could put it sideways to get a little closer to you. But those of you who are listening to this aren't going to be super useful but you might be able to glean some items from it you go over to BrianJPombo.com and watch the video, actually see the postcard. It says free installation. That's one of the largest things that I see right off the bat on all windows and patio doors. That's the first thing that jumps out at me. Secondarily, I would say up here and kind of cursive writing it says end of the summer sales event. So this has to do with windows and patio door installation. And you're either going to be interested in that right now or you're not selling on September 30. So this is definitely a very specific thing it says plus zero down zero payments, zero interest for one year. Okay, on the opposite end, the things that stand out here, the windows, the window homeowners trust. I'm not really sure what that means off the top of my head window homeowners trust. Are you a window homeowner, does anyone consider themselves a window homeowner? So that's an odd thing to make so bold,

Welcome to our podcast FedBiz'5, where you get informed, get connected and get results.  In our last episode we discussed what goes into a Capability Statement.In this episode we are discussing the importance of an Engagement Strategy, and the value of coaching in preparation for speaking with contracting officials.  Engagement strategy or “Coaching” is one-on-one consultation with our client to help further their efforts to form relationships with government buyers. It is all about preplanning and preparation. In an engagement strategy session, clients learn how to get in front of and make the most of the time spent with the contracting official.  It is the “how to” approach and reach out to government buyers.The first step is to have a complete and optimized registration in both SAM and DSBS.  Secondarily, a professionally prepared and aesthetically appealing Capability Statement serves as your government calling card or resume.Next, we teach clients how to identify their buyers.  Who buys what you sell?  Then set a plan to reach out to these buyers through marketing.  This is similar to how businesses market to their commercial clients, but with government buyers there can be more layers to peel back.Identifying government buyers takes research.  In addition to the research, once you have identified who your buyers are, it is important for you to tailor your dialogue, tailor your capability statement, and tailor your whole message to that specific buyer in their specific agency. By tailoring your approach, you want to address what they buy and how they buy.  Through preparation, you can look at the trends in government buyers' historical spending and when their current contracts come up for renewal.FedBiz Access offers Engagement Strategy sessions, as well as marketing packages to targeted buyers in the federal government with its Federal Connections Package and on the state, local, and education market with its Local Connections Package.  In addition, FedBiz offers an online database of buyers, solicitations, and expiring contracts through its Market Intel subscription.This podcast is sponsored by FedBiz Access - https://fedbizaccess.com.  For government contracting made simple, call (888) 299-4498.

Lyle D. Bierma's Font of Pardon and New Life: John Calvin and the Efficacy of Baptism (Oxford UP, 2021) is a study of the historical development and impact of John Calvin's doctrine of baptismal efficacy. The primary questions it addresses are (1) whether Calvin taught an "instrumental" doctrine of baptism, according to which the external sign of the sacrament serves as a means or instrument to convey the spiritual realities it signifies, and (2) whether Calvin's teaching on baptismal efficacy remained constant throughout his lifetime or underwent significant change. Secondarily, the work also examines whether such spiritual blessings, in Calvin's view, are conferred only in adult (believer) baptism or also in the baptism of infants, and what impact Calvin's doctrine of baptismal efficacy had on the Reformed confessional tradition that followed him. The book examines all of Calvin's writings on baptism-his Institutes, commentaries on Scripture, catechisms, polemical writings, and consensus documents-chronologically through five stages of his life and then analyzes the doctrine of baptismal efficacy in eight of the major Reformed confessions and catechisms from the age of confessional codification. It concludes that Calvin did indeed hold to an instrumental view of baptism; that this doctrine underwent change and development over the course of his life but not to the extent that some in the past have suggested; that his view of the efficacy of infant baptism was consistent with his doctrine of baptism in general; and that versions of Calvin's teaching can be found in many, though not all, of the major Reformed confessional documents of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Zach McCulley (@zamccull) is a historian of religion and literary cultures in early modern England and PhD candidate in History at Queen's University Belfast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What is federal contracting? To understand federal contracting, you first need to understand the fundamentals before we dive into any other related subjects.Welcome to our new podcast.  FedBiz'5 is your definitive resource to accelerating government sales.  FedBiz'5 is a hard-hitting, 5-minute series of free government podcasts designed to help federal contractors find and win more business. Each episode brings new information and strategies from leading experts to help simplify government contracting and provide you a clear path from registration to award.  The FedBiz team has more than 20 years of experience in government contracting with over $27.9 Billion in client awards. If you think of the federal government as a business, it is the largest buyer of goods and services in the world. Everything that they use, everything that they need, office supplies, everything must come from somewhere, and that place is typically the private sector. So, if you have a product or a service that is valuable in the commercial world, in all likelihood, there's a place for you in the federal market.If you are trying to sell your product or service to the government and you are not getting anywhere, the reason may be you do not meet their basic requirements.  Federal contractors will not just buy anything from anybody. There are certain steps and certain requirements you need to meet.Your preliminary requirements are registrations through SAM (System for Award Management) and DSBS (Dynamic Small Business Search).  These are your business and marketing profiles that need to be complete, compliant, and optimized.  Secondarily, you need to investigate if you may qualify for a socio-economic certification for special set-aside contracts.  In addition, your finances and operations should be in good order so that you can show your ability to sustain and fulfill awards. Once you have established this foundation, you need to address these questions:How can I best showcase my products/services and capabilities? How do I create relationships with federal agencies and contracting officials?What is the best way to find opportunities – published and unpublished? While published opportunities can be found on beta.SAM.gov (soon to revert back to SAM.gov), a large percentage of awards never sees the light of day in the form of a public solicitation. It is estimated that less than 35% of the actual market ever gets posted in the form of an open solicitation.  Many awards are via government credit cards, purchase orders, sole-source set-asides, GSA Schedule awards, renewed awards, and many other closed award procedures.  As the Small Business Administration points out about identifying your market, which is really after you've determined whether you are a good fit or not for government contracting, is to know whether there's a market for you and you can sustain it. The next step beyond your registrations is to then determine who your buyers are and how to get your foot in the door.This podcast is sponsored by FedBiz Access - https://fedbizaccess.com.  For government contracting made simple, call (888) 299-4498.

In today's program we continue our series on the conservation of humanity, exposing the allopathic cancer industry and examining a far more effective naturopathic alternative. Secondarily will also continue our investigation into the wuhan corona virus. Joining us today is Dr Colleen Huber, a Naturopathic Medical Doctor from Tempe, Arizona. Dr. Huber is the owner and Medical Director of NatureWorksBest Medical Clinic. Her clinic is a natural integrative cancer clinic that focuses on natural, holistic, and integrative alternative cancer treatments. The clinic's metabolic treatments have proven to be an effective alternative to the allopathic cancer treatments of chemotherapy and radiation. Dr. Huber's landmark study on sugar intake in cancer patients was groundbreaking for being the largest and longest such study in humans. Dr. Huber's academic writings have appeared in The Lancet, the International Journal of Cancer Research and Molecular Mechanisms, and other medical journals. Dr. Huber was featured as the Keynote Speaker at the 2015 Euro Cancer Summit, and the World Congress on Cancer Therapy in 2016. She is the President of the Naturopathic Cancer Society, Co-Founder and Secretary of the American Naturopathic Research Institute and the Naturopathic Oncology Research Institute, where she is also a research Fellow. To learn more about Dr Huber and her work please visit her website: https://natureworksbest.com

“I had the really fortunate opportunity to go to undergrad during what is now considered Web 1.0, Russ,” says Schram. It was the time when we all took our AOL dial-up internet experience and brought it to broadband. And actually, that's one of the reasons I chose to live at Holden Hall in South Campus. At that time, it was, I think, the first or second residence hall on campus to get wired ethernet, high-speed internet. And by high speed, I think it was at one or two megabytes at the time, but that was incredible at the time. I actually spent my experience in East Lansing working full-time.“I grew up in a media family. A lot of my dad's contemporaries who ran radio and TV stations were looking for people to build them these new-fangled web pages. I had taught myself in high school very basic HTML and JavaScript and was fortunate to have this confluence of high-speed internet where I lived and worked. I was able to do that remotely. So way before this COVID economy, when we're all at home, I was doing it remotely. And I grew up in an industry that I loved, but I realized that I wasn't going to be the person to be behind the mic like my dad used to be when he was growing up in the business and that I could actually forge a new path by really embracing my history and marrying it with this future opportunity.”Schram recalls how smartphones came online and we no longer had to be behind a laptop or desktop to interact with the internet. “To be able to have these brand relationships with consumers that were on the go and harness all those tools just fascinated me and really stoked my curiosity. So after an incredible seven-and-a-half year run at ePrize, I met Ted Murphy from IZEA. And Ted actually was a partner of ours. He was talking early about social media endorsements. There wasn't a name for it yet. It wasn't called influencer marketing back then.” Schram eventually decided to join Murphy at IZEA. ”We talked about what today in 2021 we would call The Creator Economy. We talked about this mass opportunity for democratization of storytelling and advertising messaging and how the proliferation of social networks would change all of this. The inefficiency of traditional advertising and marketing can benefit our company. And so in the fall of 2011, I was named the firm's first ever Chief Marketing Officer. And that's brought me to where I am today. And it's been an amazing nine year run.”Schram defines influencer marketing and talks about its origins and evolution.“I draw from my background growing up in broadcasting. The most valuable inventory is when a personality opens a mic in a stop set, breaks the norm from the reported commercials, and talks to you about a local dealership, or their favorite restaurant, or something they've seen or done with their family. That is a paid endorsement deal. In radio, the combination of that storytelling and the theater of the mind makes it the most single valuable inventory in the entire arsenal of what those stations sell to advertisers. So if you think about modern influencer marketing, it's the same idea.“But instead of having one morning show personality doing it, it can be hundreds or thousands of different individuals from all walks of life, all shapes and sizes of a follower base, across all multitudes of social platforms. But the basics are the same. They're being compensated in cash, product, or both by brands to create that content. That content can be written word on a blog. It can be video on YouTube or Twitch. It can be an Instagram story. It can be all those things. But the idea is what's happening from an outcomes perspective is incredible amounts of reach and engagements and authenticity that transforms what would normally be a one-to-many marketing message that a brand would traditionally do to many perspectives in modern influencer marketing.”What are some trends in influencer marketing?“The first is the continued advancement of diversity and inclusion in the work that we're doing. And it's not only people of color. It's really embracing the entire spectrum of diversity and bringing more equality to the influencer marketing space. Because very fairly, the industry has a bad rap. We're thought of as young white girls making duck faces on Instagram; that's kind of what people think influencer marketing is. But the very best influencer marketing is a broad range of voices and perspectives across a complex matrix of societal norms and un-norms.“And we've seen over the last several years, not only the recognition from our brand partners that this was so critical, but we also see it where the rubber hits the road, which is the average cost per post, meaning what someone's being paid for that sponsored endorsement. People of color, in fact, African American females earned more than all other race types here in 2021, which is the first time it's ever happened before on average. I like to believe that we're starting to see the evidence well that while we have a long way to go, the industry is trying to really understand what does inclusivity look like, and how do you make that part of the fiber of what makes this industry great?”Schram talks about the “elastic workplace” of the future. And he wonders how the social media can and will evolve.“The challenge we're having right now, post election in this COVID economy, is the fact that we have a lot of people who have a lot of time on their hands who are very apt to be behind those keyboards or thumbing through their phones and saying or doing things that they wouldn't ordinarily either have the time to do, the thought to do, or both. And so the platforms are really trying to figure out what is their role in all of this without limiting free speech, but also at the same time, not being a vector for promoting hate. And the good news is we're talking about some of the most valuable well-resourced organizations on the face of this earth with some of the smartest people in our space. And I think that there will be a path forward to doing that.“What the last 12 months or so have taught us as a society of human beings on this planet is that there is some good in all of this. There's the connective fiber that we've had while being so lonely and being by ourselves at home that, at least for myself, has been very good for my mental health. To be able to still talk to people and interact with them like you and I are doing over Zoom right now in recording this podcast, I wouldn't have the chance to be able to see you or talk to you in real time if it weren't for these types of tools. And for that, I'm grateful. I think about even Christmas day in our family, I ended up buying Facebook Portal TV devices for members of our family that couldn't safely travel to Michigan for the holidays.”What's your advice for today's Spartans who may be interested in a career in influencer marketing?“You need to be hungry and humble from the start. Those who really succeed the best don't form a sense of entitlement. They realize that there's tremendous equity in being able to be self-starters. And I think that Spartans are really well equipped for this. Spartans tend to be people who are a little bit more entrepreneurial in nature, a little bit more focused on the substance versus the sizzle.“And ultimately, in an industry like mine, where there's plenty of frothiness and plenty of shiny coins going on, at the end of the day, the types of young professionals that we're looking for are those who can really separate the wheat from the chaff and say, ‘Great. Our business is elevated by some of those frothiness types of things, but it doesn't change the fact that we need individuals who can take a look at what we're doing, figure out how to continue to transform it and continuously improve upon it, and can do so knowing that they're working in a space that never has had a playbook.' “So being able to live in that uncertainty is critically important. I also think that from a pure educational perspective, specific to advertising and marketing, it's important to realize how these two historically very separate disciplines have collided at light speed over the last decade or so. And the world works in a very integrated capacity right now. And all you're hearing from those chief marketing officers is that they want integrated marketing talent that understands what the media world looks like and what the creative world looks like. How do you measure all of it from a business intelligence perspective?”Schram talks about why MSU was the college for him coming out of high school. He closes our conversation with a couple takeaways influencer marketing and where it's headed.“Globalization continues to be a major trend. You have Fortune 1000 business leaders who want to be able take their campaigns out of one section of the world and bring them to others. There is going to continue to need to be a real focus on how does that storytelling evolve on a country to country basis? And working together with those different brand leaders in different corners of the world is something that we think is going to be a real trend in the years ahead. Secondarily, there's also this idea of how do you continue to get as much utility and measurement out of influencer marketing as possible? We feel like the reusability of what we're doing can be tremendously powerful, even beyond the ways that we've conventionally measured it.“All influencer marketing can provoke engagement and certainly impression-based media outcomes. We're also seeing more modern marketers start to utilize it for things that may not necessarily have been conventional in the past. You can take a really great Instagram video and repurpose it because you have the rights to it for pre-roll across digital outlets or digital platforms. You can take photo assets from a campaign that may be on a blog and repurpose them to retail activations. There's just a plethora of ways to get more and more utility out of those investments that we think will continue to push the industry forward and really continue to elevate the promise of what influencer marketing can be.”MSU Today airs Sunday mornings at 9:00 on 105.1 FM, AM 870, and however you stream your shows. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Dr. Susan Tamasi is a pedagogist at Emory University. Spending the last decade and a half researching, authoring and teaching some of the brightest minds to communicate. The thing is, her approach to education and leaning is filled with a casual and comfortable tone. conventioNOT episodes are filled with interviews, but none quite like this.  Dr. Tamasi informs Mike and McD about the NBC Pronunciation Standards they learned as elementary students and dives deeper into the fundamentals of communication in the US. Shockingly enough, her drive as a linguist isn't to speak all of the languages... but to understand the people who do.  Show Transcription: 00:05 Hey everybody, welcome and thanks so much for joining us on today's episode of conventioNOT, I'm Ryan and I chat with Dr. Susan Tamasi, the program director of linguistics at Emory University.   00:16 What does that mean? That means Susan's studies the way people talk, specifically in the English language, she travels around the country around the world, listening, mostly listening,   00:31 but appreciating and understanding that the idea and the goal is communication.   00:39 We thought it was a pretty good time to share this message, and we can't think of a better person to communicate it.   00:48 I think Ryan and I have admittedly always been students so the way people interact with one another.   00:54 If that's the case, and Dr. Tamasi is definitely the Professor.   00:59 This conversation to me was one of the more fascinating ones we've had on the show, but I think you'll find it interesting, educational and thought provoking. It was heartfelt and pretty deep. Because I think we all need to take some more time to understand communication. If nothing else, just listen to one another. On that note, sit back relax. Check out this episode with Dr. Susan Tamasi.   01:32 We are recording.   01:34 Look at that. So, I guess, Mike, is it like 6am for you? You got coffee? I've got a beer. I do have my coffee. But no, it's noon. I mean, I've been up for a couple hours now. I mean, I'm doing pretty good. I'm well into my work day.   01:55 Our guests, Dr. Susan Tamasi was kind enough today to join us a little bit after work hours, I guess it's six o'clock eastern time, which is probably a little bit closer to what we're trying to record. Anyway, a little bit more casual interview.   02:09 But we're really glad to have you today. I'm excited to be here. Do you think you could take a second to introduce yourself? Sure. So I'm Susan Tamasi. My official title is professor of pedagogy and the director of the program and linguistics at Emory University, where I've been teaching for 17 years now.   02:33 Yeah, I live in Atlanta, Georgia. And I'm really excited to be here.   02:38 All right, right away. That word you used professor of. I've heard that. enunciate, oh, I'm gonna screw up a bunch of stuff today. So say that in normal people where it's like, what does that mean? teaching? It means teaching. That's all it means is what's pedagogy? God's here, go, gee, what's that word? What's the entomology of that word? entomology, the bugs of it.   03:12 One of my old roommates was an entomologist. So we had lots of jokes about me doing entomology around the house.   03:20 He also would bake with bugs, which always made things really, really interesting when they like, oh, a cookie. Oh, it has worms in it. Fantastic.   03:29 So pedagogy references,   03:33 not just teaching, but also the study about teaching and best practices and understanding, you know, different types of teaching and strategies and recognizing what's best for students and for those that are teaching them and the right materials. So I don't actually do research on teaching itself. But the position that I have is teaching focused as opposed to research focused. So yeah, that's, that's my title. How long have you been at Emory for 17 years? I just finished my 17th year. Congratulations. That's, that's quite a tenure. Does that include your time as a student? No. So that was a an additional for earlier on. So I went to Emory in the early 90s, fully dating myself now.   04:24 And then I left and I did a great little stint in the marketing, in marketing in the music industry, and realize that it sounded super cool. And I absolutely hated the work that I was doing. And I hated where I was, and I hated everything about it. So I went back to school for the thing that I started drawing Venn diagrams, and realize that I was really interested, like what drew me to music was youth subcultures and how communities interact with one another and   05:00 And I had been a Russian major at Emory. So I was, you know, also interested in language and how that comes across, and how it connects to community and society and identity. And so I started drawing all these Venn diagrams and realized linguistics was in the middle. So I went back to school for that. And six years after that started teaching at Emory, because one of my old professors needed somebody to come in and help with the program. And I just basically stayed until they started, kept signing my contract, so I wouldn't leave.   05:36 That sounds like such a simple approach.   05:40 What Yeah, sometimes they don't just show back up every year. I mean, clearly,   05:45 something pretty productive in your time.   05:49 I mean, you know, I just, I just kind of hang out until they finally said, Okay, I wore them down, I think, or, you know, I put in so much blood, sweat and tears that they finally said, All right, we get it, we get it. You can you can have this. Yeah. Where are you from that region. Like Originally, I know, you said you like when did your schooling there but like you grew up in that area. So I grew up in a suburb, Marietta east, Cobb, that's about 45 minutes ish north of Atlanta. So it didn't, I didn't go too far away from college. But it was far enough that my parents weren't going to show up. And then I left, I keep coming back to Georgia, I go away, I come back, I got away, come back. But it's it's home. So it's nice to be able to have a job that I love near my family, especially as my parents get older, it's been really nice to have that opportunity. Like, I feel like the time in full disclosure, Susan and I have known each other for a few years. But I feel like that time from what I understand around Atlanta that like, from the let's say, basically, from the time that the Olympics were announced that they were coming to Atlanta to the time with which you're talking about like you go to college, and you go through there, that it becomes kind of an urban epicenter. Was that part? I mean, certainly, that's part of your formation as a young person growing up in around the city that it is, but was that part of what dictated your career? Somehow? Um, I think it might have. So what dictated my career in terms of where I ended up, was the fact that I came from a family from New Jersey and was raised in the suburban south. And so the idea of how people sounded and what language that they used was something that was talked about a lot around my household, or you know, in terms of either making fun of people or just like, Oh, you know, the families just like dialect, right? Like, yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah. So I mean, that's what I do. I actually, my, my focus now is looking at the attitudes and perceptions that people have about dialects in the United States. So from there, there's a direct correlation. But it was also that I grew up in a suburban environment, I came into the city a lot, I had lots of interactions with people from around the country.   08:15 You know, around the world a little bit. I mean, I was kind of somewhat isolated in that, you know, we had some international students and stuff, but it wasn't nearly what I'm around right now.   08:25 And but it was, it was that experience that you know, you should travel and that you should see people in places and meet different types of people. I think that was the setup. That allowed me to   08:39 kind of see positivity and identity and diversity and kind of explore that throughout my life, both professionally and personally.   08:51 Holy shit, I'm so fascinated what you do, like, I'm sorry, I'm gonna be um,   08:59 this is gonna be awkward, cuz I'm gonna throw some questions out there that may make me so really, I hate being ignorant. Obviously, I hope everyone hates being ignorant. But there are just some things that, you know, I don't want to sound ignorant with any of my questions, but you will not I do something that's really weird that most people have. I mean, people like what do you do for a living? I'm like, I'm a linguist, and everybody just goes,   09:22 I have no idea what that means. And that's fine. And I love talking about it. Also, stop me and ask questions if I skip over something because I talk about this all day, every day. And so some, you know, judging how much detail to go into,   09:40 you know, if it's too much jargon, but like, I just love that this is such a tangible topic, right? I mean, unless you've never left here, your little county lines, um, you've heard some folks say the same words in a different way. You know, and I don't. I love that you're able to trace that back to you know, like,   10:00 Young a young age you had that that? Whether it was an interest or just the ongoing kind of joke in the house, you know, alright, can I say this? Like,   10:11 your family's from New Jersey? So do people in New Jersey think their accent is the norm? And everyone else talks by me? Like, is that just the natural? So the So the answer to that is generally speaking people think that whatever they sound like or whatever people around them sounds like that that's exactly what everybody should be speaking. And in fact, we can we refer to this in some instances when people are pretty secure and confident about their own speech. We call it linguistic security. Michigan tends to have the most linguistically secure people,   10:54 people like,   10:55 Yeah.   10:59 Like, I don't have an accent, like, Yes, you do. Um, New York, New Jersey, and the South East are three areas in the United States that have pretty heavily stigmatized, dialects, ways of speaking, that are talked about pretty openly in the media. You know, growing up, I thought, Okay, well, I mean, I'm Southern, and I have some some parts of my speech that are Southern, but I don't sound like those people over there. Those are the real Southern people. So there's, there's definitely a stigma that's really well known. So it wasn't that, like my family in New Jersey necessarily thought that they had the best speech, but they didn't necessarily think it was that bad. And the people, my family in Georgia, same thing, or they're like, Oh, you know, there are people that are worse. And I understand the perceptions of that some people think it's bad. But you know, this is my people. This is like, yeah, I mean, that's mom's cooking, right?   12:02 That's what it tastes like cast, right. And so I guess it's, well, not only is it supported by media, in a lot of like sitcom media. But there's also like experiences from that perspective. So having lived and worked in the southeast, and then coming from Michigan, and it's funny, I want to come back to this because we were actually taught that we talk normal. I mean, Mike, I don't know if you remember this or not. But like, I remember being taught that the Midwest accent is the   12:30 neutral. Yeah, maybe not good or bad, but just not on any side. If you look at it as like elementary education, like part of elementary education, we taught that right? For us, there certainly is a component with which well, I guess that contributes to your statement, right, Susan? But like, you know, being so confident and an overcomer. And that, but there certainly is in the southeast or in the northeast? And this is kind of a question like, you really can diagnose where somebody is from, I think a little bit easier than you can, let's just say west of the Mississippi.   13:07 I don't want to be so bold as to say why is that right? Because that could I'm sure be a huge answer. But could you give us some indicators on like, how that ends up happening? Can we just include of those five cities? You mentioned earlier? Can we include Boston in the Boston is?   13:22 Like, yeah, no.   13:25 So So there, there are a couple of things to talk about. So the way that language works is language is always changing and transforming. And it always works to meet the needs of its speakers. And as one of the things that happens all the time is light. I mean, one of the there are very few universals about language. The Universal is that language always changes. And now what happens is language will always change at different times in different places, and among different groups of people. So why do people in England sound differently than people in the United States, because people picked up and they moved over and they planted here. And then these two sets of people change differently over time. And so now we have two different lenses and variables. Yes. And so as people come together and split apart, their language continues to change. And so the people that split might sound like them for a little while, but then they'll start to sound a little bit different. So every place in the United States has to some extent, it depends on how closely you want to look or where you want to divide the lines. Everywhere has its own accent everywhere has its own dialect.   14:35 And I mean, in my class, I draw lots of maps and have, you know, people moving across the country and saying that   14:45 what happened was on the East Coast of the United States, so the places that were settled by English speakers earliest these are the areas Boston New York, Charleston, New England, Savannah   15:00 Ron,   15:01 Richmond, these are all the places that had their language set before the American Revolution. It's changed over time, but like that was in place. Now what happened is as those people moved west, this is my little This is my, as people moved west, they all started to interact with one another. So on the West Coast 5060 years ago, everybody's kind of sounded a lot of like, compared to the people on the East Coast, which still had those pretty distinct differences. Now, what's happening is in the last 2030 years, we're watching as the West Coast is changing as well. Northern California sounds different from Southern California, the Pacific Northwest sounds different than fornia. And one of the most interesting thing that's, that's going on right now that we've been able to track for the last 50 years, is there's there's a shift in how people are speaking along the northern part of the US. And it's happening just in cities. It's happening in Detroit. It's happening in Milwaukee, it's happening in Buffalo in Minneapolis, St. Paul Chicago.   16:15 And so those areas that used to be considered just like the common standard American Speech, actually, people speak more differently. Now they're   16:26 versus the rest of the country than they ever did. So now that's an area where I can actually pick out somebody from Michigan a lot easier than I can pick out somebody from most places in the United States anymore. Man, I could speculate all over that. I wonder how much digital communication and therefore so like, if I communicate digitally all day, do I become more Nucleic in the way that my localized accents affect me? If that makes sense, right? I don't know. That's so   16:57 that's a cool subject, man. Yeah, sorry. But those are two sides. So people always say, Well, I mean, and this happened with radio, it happened with TV, it happened with the internet, oh, with x technology, people are gonna start sounding more like, what happens is that doesn't happen.   17:14 What it does happen is you understand more people, because you're used to hearing them, like a standard British dialect, we have no problem hearing now. Because we hear it all the time.   17:26 you're interacting with more people you're hearing more people than you would have never heard before. It's not necessarily changing your speech a whole lot. Because it's still only a small part of what's going on and you don't interact with the radio or TV, you kind of have to have that interaction for it to affect you.   17:44 So people would always say like, oh, the United States, everybody is going to start speaking the same. We're actually speaking differently from one another. But these types of communication systems does allow us to have influence from people that we wouldn't expect,   18:00 or that we wouldn't have had before. I just   18:05 there's no one to answer one of the earlier questions that you guys had, the reason you were taught that you had, like, the standard best way of speaking was when we decided to create a media standard when TV, TV and radio were happening 30s 40s 50s   18:26 they went to the Midwest, and wrote down what people sounded like and said this, and actually, you can still find that booklet. It's the NBC standard national broadcast on people from the Midwest. That's Yeah, it's not Midwest, people found that out. We're like, we're good at something. We're gonna make sure everyone knows it. Right. Like it was, it was democratically American, the West, the East Coast, nobody knew what was going on in the West Coast, the East Coast was to had too much. Yeah, a reminiscence of previous times. It makes sense. I have just so many, because like I admitted earlier, like, once you started getting into this, I just have so many, like, entertaining anecdotes over the years that are very specific to this topic. And but they're all they're all related to travel. Um, and like what you're saying earlier about, you know, the change in the language and you know, that it the further back the roots go, you know, the less altered it has been over time. And I didn't even think about like, West Coast. I mean, in the fact that you say now, there are starting to be, you know, like, pockets of very different language along the west coast. Like, that's just   19:42 that makes sense. You know what I mean, but it's just the 30 years from now, people from Oregon are gonna sound completely different than people from San Diego and like, to me a kid from Michigan, maybe not, I mean, I don't know that's probably an extreme but the idea that you can pick that up um,   20:00 That's such a unique like, you must.   20:04 I love when musicians talk about just noises. You know what I mean? Because it's like, What are you talking about? Man, there's no, there's no beat, like, that's a street car, you know, but you must just hear noise, human noise in a, in a in a very different way. I was gonna say beautiful, but there's probably so much going on.   20:24 It's all beautiful. I love it all. I recognize like, I notice a lot of it, I don't notice a lot of it because I don't want to work all the time. Or sometimes you just turn it off. I've been out at cocktail parties and somebody starts talking about something. I'm like, Oh, can I can you guys make me not like, I don't want to work right now? Do we have to talk about this? And they're like, Oh, yeah, you do this for a living? And then they start asking questions like, okay.   20:50 But I'm actually kind of really bad at telling where people are from based on their speech, because there is so much interaction at this point, unless, you know, something comes out that's very specific of like, Oh, I know that one individual word or pronunciation is rarely used outside of this particular community. So sure, you know, I do that. But you know, when I hear it, I'm like, ooh. And my husband is like, really, you're gonna pick up on that.   21:18 So this might be a little bit of a good pivot point. Right. And so, you know, as we talked, the show is about both. And since you mentioned your husband, one of the things that has always infatuated me about you guys, is that you are in constantly in a pursuit of education about people in a constant pursuit about education around the world, actually, no, that's a big part of the way that y'all invest your resources. They call us y'all, they're almost almost comes off the tongue as if I don't say dollar.   21:52 Ultimately, I know that   21:55 you invest your dollars, and your resources, more importantly, experienced this around the world. So talk to us a little bit about that, because not so much, you know, in the academic format. I'm fortunate enough to see some of the the Facebook post and some of the beautiful pictures that Jamie takes when you guys experienced this, but how does that help inform your travel around the world?   22:17 Um, I mean, you know, he and I have made a pact A while ago, I don't know, implicitly or not   22:25 that I think we made a pact. But I don't know if we actually did,   22:30 it was just a decision that was somehow made that we work too hard just to kind of hang around here that when we have time off. And that's really when I have time off because I have a very specific schedule, as a teacher, that whenever I have any time off, so   22:48 winter break, spring break, summer, that we go somewhere. And as we've gotten older and have had the means to do it, we go broader and broader and where we can go around the world.   23:01 I was actually supposed to be presenting at a conference in Hong Kong this week. So that didn't happen. And I've never, never done Asia. So I'm really looking forward to the webinars not gonna be the same as going to Hong Kong. Well, they, yeah, they said, they didn't even try to do it online. They're like, we're just gonna postpone it for a year. It's a conference that happens every other year. So they're just gonna postpone this time.   23:28 So it's just and it's funny, because I gotta backtrack for a split second. Whenever I tell people that I'm a linguist, the inevitable answers that anybody gets who is a linguist. There are two responses, one Oh, I better watch what I say. Which is kind of ironic, since I'm the one who studies language variation and dialects and all of that. And like, yeah, I'm the last person to judge anybody's grammar. But the what most linguists get as the response is, oh, how many languages do you speak? Ah, that's the same thing. But lol and that's just it like everybody's just because they also use the word term linguist as translator, which is a totally different thing.   24:12 And so when people say, how many languages do you speak, I'm like, one, I speak English. That's what I study. I even I don't even study all of English. I study American English.   24:22 And I study the history of English. So we travel so much, it's kind of funny, because we were like, Oh, you must, you know, know all these languages and go all these places and like, now, it was just kind of really nice to go someplace and not hear people speaking English for a while, and just absorbing observations. Like, I'm not paying attention to what people are talking about, like if people are talking about politics, or if they're talking about somebody's clothing or just like completely banal inane, whatever they're discussing, and not picking up on that making. It's it's   25:00 not pulling me into that, which can happen around here. And I don't try to be judgmental, but sometimes like, what are you guys talking about?   25:09 Because I do use drop a lot. But it just allows me to travel and just watch people and eat and drink and experience architecture in all of the beauty that's around and the amazing aspects of people,   25:28 just by kind of not knowing and giving myself the opportunity to be aware of things that I'm not always aware of. So that, for me is a key aspect of of travel and being able to, to do that. So Ryan, I'm not sure if that really kind of got to what you're asking, but it did, right. I know, because of some of our previous discussions that learning the language, I know you're not the person. And there are people like this who gain a benefit from deciding they're going to go somewhere. And then they use, there are a lot of modalities. Now I think you could teach yourself on language to be able to survive that. And so, you know, maybe five years ago when I learned that this was something that you all invested resources in, right, because affordability hopefully changes for all of us right over time. And that's what we want to so many people spend every waking hour working on. But the possibility of going somewhere with your kind of background. I mean, I think almost I don't like the word assume. But I think that a lot of times it would be assumed or typecast that that you somebody like you would be going there to know all of the language to immerse yourself in that. And so that to me, always struck me as one of the like magical parts about knowing you all as a couple you as a person, because it wasn't about that it is about the way that that informs how you like take in all of the art, you mentioned the architecture and you know the pieces of the creativity in the areas you go that draw you and so there's no shortage of that here in Atlanta. But it's not like it's just too much English speaking though, she needs to go somewhere non English speaking just fine. I love I love traveling around the US as well. It's just really nice. So as you said like it's it's seeing and experiencing a different culture language is definitely a part of that. But it's it's the bigger aspect that I'm that I'm interested in as well.   27:30 And like so we do we learn at least some phrases I can I know probably how to ask for a table for two in order a bottle of wine in a good dozen languages at this point. So you know, we get that down. Before we go places, both of us will have kind of some of the basics. And we've studied languages that allow us to at least get some of those   27:54 general interactions pretty pretty well. We can kind of work some things out. And I've never been to a place yet where I didn't know that alphabet. So that's helpful to like being able to read signs and plaques and things like that. If you went to Hong Kong, you would have known the alphabet now No.   28:14 So I have a year, too. But in Hong Kong, I mean English as an official language. So actually, I'm not really worried about.   28:24 But in Yeah, my job also was to learn when we rent a car, I have to learn all the traffic rules of that country. That's my job as we go replaces. So you know, we'll learn a lot and we have part of that. But we also recognize that we're getting this much of the culture and this much of the language.   28:41 And instead of going back to the same place over and over again, to get a deeper understanding of that, we've made a choice to keep trying other places. So I mean, we recognize that we're getting surface level discussions and observations with people.   29:00 But, you know, it also allows us to have a very much broader view of the world. So   29:08 man, I just leave what I think is a broader view of the world. I don't know if everybody love and I'm sorry, because you You didn't paint this picture. But I've gone ahead and painted it in my mind of Gee, like, just deciding based on language alone, like now, I don't know, mainly English speaking. Let's avoid that one. Like, we don't need that. We know what they're saying there. I mean, because that different forms of English New Zealand was awesome. I'm so excited.   29:38 That is what I was getting at in a very roundabout way, which isn't a strength of mine to be succinct and direct. But if you've been to Hawaii before, yes. Okay. Um, so, you know, Ryan and I grew up suburban Detroit. My wife and I moved to Toronto. We lived in Canada for eight years.   30:00 Where I was often asked like, Are you from the south, and I would often very entertaining conversations with people about how I said hockey and things like that. Then I moved to Hawaii, and   30:15 I had never really lived   30:17 in, in an area where there was a   30:22 what's the right term for a severe alteration of English? I mean, I know what they call it here. I will, I will go one further. It's not a severe alteration. It's such a severe alteration, it's an interaction with other languages. It's a totally different language, pigeon. It's like it is. So you have Hawaiian English, but you also have Hawaiian pidgin English, or a totally different language. And it is, to me, it's the thing of like, in like, because I'm the type of person like, I just love differences in people. Like, that's something ever since I was a little kid, you know, my parents would be like, Michael, you cannot walk up to strangers and ask them about their hair, you know, like I was just like, but I've never seen someone with hair like, so I moved out here. And I'm lucky enough to have met a variety of people, including quite a few fishermen. One of the things that I love and respect the most about a lot of the guys that I fish with, is the fact that they can turn it on and off. So they will literally, they will speak to me and clean No, because they have their nine to five jobs. They're not on the boat all the time, guys, with their nurses mechanics of variety thing. They speak to me in plain English. And then they turn 90 degrees and speak to the other guys on the boat. And the language I cannot I might pick up like a 10th I kind of get what they're talking about.   31:49 And I love it. I just sit back and there's times where they're like, Mike, Mike, and I'm like, What? Like, we're talking to you, man. I'm like, Whoa, you gotta slow it down, or use some directional pointed stuff like, and it's just the best ongoing joke. I mean, I I can guarantee half the time they don't know they've switched. It's generally it's just the way it Yeah, this is the way I talk to this person. And so this is how I say it. When I'm talking. I think.   32:18 I think it's such an incredible ability, like cuz I imagined my buddy at work as a nurse, you know, when he's, he's talking to the doctor who graduated from Washington or whatever. Um, but then he's got to turn around and talk to this patient. And like, a lot of the times the patients and there's communities here in Hawaii, where it's, that's all they speak at home is Pidgin, right? So I cannot communicate to that patient to the same ability that my buddy, can you know what I mean? Like, yeah, and usually wait quicker to like, the thing I love about pigeon is that like, that was three sentences, you just smashed into two words. And the person you're talking to knew exactly, I don't know what you're talking about. But that person knew. And Damn, you got right to the point real quickly. Yeah, no, it's it's an amazing language to listen to. And there's such a connection there. And there was Hawaii has such a history of them trying to smash it.   33:21 Like the educational system trying to push it out. And there was, you know, people being punished for speaking it. And there's a resurgence,   33:29 where more people are learning pigeon, and and,   33:34 you know, using it in different areas. So in night, and you've seen you've given a perfect example, right, why it's important to have   33:46 it one of the other things I study is health communication. So the idea of this, this, like health care provider and patient interaction, where it needs to be, not only when the patient doesn't understand the more standard or doesn't understand English, like doesn't understand why in English, that you have to go into Pidgin to be able to get the point across, but also in a situation where you're also trying to comfort somebody, being able to speak to them in the home language actually, can make things easier and calmer, as opposed to just not just whether or not somebody understands but are you really communicating in a positive way?   34:35 Do you ever wonder why Mike and I spend all these hours talking to people? Well, mostly it's because we're curious. Secondarily, it's because we'd like to share the stories of people as we learn how to become better journalists. In order to help us out we would love if you take a second and give us some feedback on your podcast channel. just pause the episode, go and write us a review. Give us as many stars as you want. We'll love to read it.   35:05 Is that a different?   35:08 Let me let me rephrase that. What is the learning approach to something like that when you are, let's just take the physician example. Right? Because you know, in a lot of times, unless you are from that place originally, you're coming back there to work in that area you a lot of times professionals and healthcare placed in places. How do you how do you bridge that gap? I mean, I know that's your area of study, what are some things that you could share with us that help the layman understand how that gap gets bridged?   35:40 Um, well, one of the things that happens is a medical school does everything in their power to train doctors how to think and speak like other people are not like other people, I'm sorry. Like, it's you now have to think like a doctor, you have to interact with one another doctor, like you are, you are no longer of the people, you are experts in this field, and you need to show that. So you have things like case presentations, where   36:14 studies have found that when they're testing interns and residents on whether or not they can present their their cases, I guess med students, when they if they can do a case presentation, it has more to do with Are you using the right language? And are you presenting it confidently, as opposed to are you actually correct.   36:33 So, so that's one aspect of it. So having crossing that divide can be anything from, I recognize that the way I'm speaking as a health care provider is not the same. And I need to change the way I speak when I'm interacting with patients.   36:53 You know, we talk when whenever anybody switched between two different languages, or two different dialects, or even different just modes of speaking, we talked about it as code switching. So it might be that you're using one set of vocabulary and grammar with, you know, the nurse or the other doctor, and then you turn to your patient, and you make sure that you're using language that that particular community, that particular person can understand. Of course,   37:25 that's hard to do. And you know what, you have to be willing to do that. And you have to be willing to be trained to do that. And depending where you practice and what you're doing, there can be a whole lot that is involved in it. And it might be that it nobody wants a doctor that comes to them and start speaking in a dialect that's not their own, right.   37:47 It's just like, Oh, I think I think you're gonna speak this way. So I'm gonna start speaking because that's just that awful. I'm so it's   37:57 sorry, was that that's a sitcom. I think about so many language train wrecks that happened with sitcoms on health care. I mean, yes. A lot. Do you remember the movie airplane? Course? Yeah. Excuse me, stewardess. I speak jive, you know? And yeah. Oh,   38:15 yeah. Okay, what is happening here? Um, you know, so things could go very wrong very quickly. But it's the idea of recognizing that that people communicate differently and being willing to talk differently, or at least, listen, seems seems like a real crucial theme today. Right? Just maybe the first step is recognition. Not Not knowing Yeah, the answers, but maybe just recognizing, you know, and maybe not trying to answer yourself and listen for a second and say about it.   38:50 On that note, though, I have another question.   38:54 All right, so I'm gonna be replaying that phrase code switching over and over, as it's just a really cool sounding term to NPR has an entire area called code switch, that's a set of podcasts? Well,   39:09 that's what I was gonna ask you and not i'm not presumptuously because I would imagine that the kind of neurological activity and behavior of people with varying linguistic abilities, and I think I'm trying to sound smart, but basically people that can bounce around from language to language or code switch very efficiently.   39:32 Can you talk at all about like the brain act, I'm not asking you to say those people are smarter than others, but is that like something that you've studied or kind of delved into at all? I haven't, there are lots of people who have um, and I mean, so the example of what you were you were you're giving on the boat of your friends talking to you and then talking. Oftentimes when people are switching between   39:56 two languages or two dialects, they don't really recommend   40:00 They do it. They just we, when we're speaking,   40:04 we go for what we think is going to be the best way to communicate.   40:08 And we tried to, there's a thing called linguistic accommodation where we, we want to speak, like the people that we're talking to even minorly. Because it shows us social connection as well. Yeah, yeah. So I mean, languages stored generally in the same place. And I'm not I don't know enough about what's going on in the brain with multiple languages. But you know, you can access it from kids, before they have any idea how to tie their shoes, they're able to switch between multiple languages perfectly without even thinking about it. And it's, it's actually better if you're really thinking about it, you know, you just automatically go back and forth.   40:55 And sometimes you have to make a decision, like if you're, if you're in a place where it's a bilingual place, but you know, that there are different attitudes associated with different ways of speaking. Do you approach somebody you don't know, and you start speaking the language that if both of you speak it, it might connect you as like the local language, but it all could come across as like, I don't think you know this well enough. So I'm going to talk to you.   41:25 You know, there's a lot morally right, yes, yes. So, I mean, there's a lot involved. Oftentimes, people switch between different languages, when they get very emotional. There's certain things that they will automatically say, in one language, or one dialect versus another. Gotcha.   41:46 I know, a couple Spanish, where it's quite well, my wife, the daughter of a Mexican woman, and they're not like, I love you. It's not No, no, no.   41:57 No, it's one of those abilities, though, that I think, you know, when you hear about someone,   42:05 and I'm thinking like Jason Bourne, but that's that's like a stupid example more like, you know, some traveling business person who isn't overly impressive, but can like hang in five different languages, to me that and that's like, maybe a fault of my own that is so exotic, and amazing to me, that I automatically placed that individual's intelligence at like, such. But I think that's because for me, there's nothing more important than being able to talk to other people. And like some prejudice of sorts, right, exactly. Like, I don't think that that that ability necessarily equates to like, that person might not be he might not know how to add, or she may know, you know, not have all that rain.   42:51 So that happens, like some people are just like, sometimes people get elected, you can imagine.   42:59 One reading is a very, very different skill.   43:04 Yeah, let's, let's let's get into that one in a second.   43:08 No, absolutely. So I there's a joke that says, What do you call somebody who speaks multiple languages? Somebody who's multilingual, what do you call somebody who only speaks one language? American? Yeah. Now no. reality. Right. So use you saying that, you know, somebody going around speaking five different languages is exotic for most of the world. That's just their daily basis, you have to speak most communities around the world speak at least two, usually three, and more languages for interacting, because you have small communities that have historically spoken languages. And as people move around, you speak with them. So that's, that's like multilingualism is actually the norm. We're weird and not speaking multiple languages normally, but it also Yeah, for us, it's, we have this idea as Americans that's like, Oh, well, you must be really smart to be able to speak multiple languages must be like a secret agent or something, you know.   44:10 And they're in and the idea of like, but you know, how do you speak five languages, but you can't read anything. Like for us there's a disconnect, but that's, that's a pretty normal, like, Girl. If you grew up in The Hague, you speak for four languages. Yeah. And like, you might not have graduated high school, but yeah, you speak four languages. Like that's just that's the and that was my experience in Toronto. Um, is, is you know, it's a it's a matter of need, right? I mean, man, a lot of people learn a whole new language just for a vacation. When you move there about 30 days in, you get tired asking for the same thing every day. Right? So you learn what the next thing is, and   44:51 it's a it's such a cool topic for me I could go on and on and on about this. I this is tied to this every day.   45:00 For the last 20 years,   45:04 and as a teacher, I pull more people into my world, I'm like, come with me, come talk to me about this, I can imagine that this is gonna be a multi part interview I talked   45:15 a little bit about, like, are asking the expert type discussions, you know, for our listeners in they've heard a couple of them now, Mike, you know, where we're taking a little bit different angle above and beyond just the interview components, but there's kind of, there's this like initiation thing that you have to go through, you have to be interviewed, before we get into the expert part. So I could do this. I know we're getting close to our hour here. But I really, if I could I want to ask one real final question. These from from my camp, which is   45:48 it's no secret to most people who are listening now that we have this time in what started in America with the world that is relative to race and brutality in, in what's going on, right. And so, this show is not about that. And, you know, we are an episodic show, meaning that we talk a lot about things that we hope could be published for years on end. And it's an autobiography, biography type of an interview that we're hoping to achieve today. But when you think about unity across the world, and you think about how language affects unity,   46:24 myopically here in the United States, relative to you know, the current exacerbation has to do with police brutality, and this ever burning, you know, very true   46:36 difference in races in the United States and difference in socio economic ways that that works out in your life, or how does language save us? Like, I don't want to make it so prophetic, but like, how, how does that help? Like how, how do we how do we, how do we become better partners to each other better tribes, as groups to other tribes to let language start to develop peace in this world?   47:04 I love this question. This was a phenomenal question.   47:08 And I do think language can save us. But I also switch it a little bit from not just language, but communication. So it's the idea of being willing to talk to people. And right now what's going on in the United States, being willing to listen, and not passively listen? actively, they call it 360 degree listening, where your brain isn't off thinking about some other stuff. And you're just kind of you're actually listening and processing and thinking through? What is this person telling me? What is this community telling me? What do I not understand? And how can I ask questions so I can understand.   48:02 So I think language can save us by giving us the ability to communicate, but really having the will to communicate and listen and process and think through and speak up. I know, I'm not as good as this as I should be. When you hear something when you hear other people say things that are untrue.   48:26 If not, false, are just on.   48:32 I don't even know the term at this point. Because words are hard.   48:37 Getting You know, when you hear something, it's not always just about correcting but having somebody like, okay, you said this, but what about if you actually think about it from the other person's perspective? Or, you know, what, if you're listening to somebody, I read something the other day that was talking about reactions to these stories that we've been hearing. And in particular, this was the issue that happened in New York City in the park, where   49:05 Amy Cooper called the police. And there was this blog post that I was reading that was talking about how all of these people were saying, Oh, well if it were me, I would be doing something else. If it were no, if I was there, I would have said something if and the blog focused on   49:28 the idea of stop making it about you stop making it about how you're experiencing it and how you feel about it. That's fine process that work with it. But stop and listen to what   49:44 the other people have or you know, all parties you know, the I can't Mr. Cooper, the guy who's I can't remember his first name. Now. That was the birdwatcher that had the police called on him. You know, look at it from his perspective and what was going on. Listen to him.   50:00 Listen to what he has to say. And listen to what he said in the video. So it's I think this is a long winded answer, and I apologize for that. But I think it's the idea of speaking up when you can, listening to one another, the idea of communication, regardless of what language that's in whatever dialect it's in, you know, find a way to understand   50:24 when we talk about people talking to folks with especially that speak stigmatized dialects, like African American English, we use this phrase   50:34 communicative burden, that sometimes as listeners, we just say, I don't understand what that person is saying. Or if it's somebody who hasn't done is non native speaker of English, I'm not going to understand what that person is saying. So I'm not going to listen, or whatever, they're not speaking in a way that I want to follow in that can be politically valid, as you know, in terms of politics, like you've used a term or you're coming from a perspective that I want, don't want. So I'm gonna stop and I'm putting the communicative burden on you to change how you speak. So it's better for me. And that's just not fair. So it's, it's taking that burden onto yourself.   51:18 I hate that you felt the need to apologize for that amazing answer. It's long winded out of need. There's there's no way to none of this is an easy, easy answer. And I, I could not even if I sat down and wrote it over and over again, have have expressed it better than you did. I mean, what I took from that actor is you don't need to speak the most important part of communication isn't what comes out of your mouth. So just shut up. And listen.   51:51 That's the that's the best place to start is just listening and, you know, compassion and greater effort on all of our parts. I that what that communicative burden, another amazing term? There's a version of it, if there's another word, or what was the other link was the other work? All right, yeah. Do   52:16 you guys have very   52:18 phrases?   52:20 But how tragic is that? And you know, what's messed up is like, embarrassingly?   52:26 Well, embarrassingly, I think we all need to just get a little bit better at this, you know, 2030 years ago, growing up in suburban Michigan, it was, it was a lot more acceptable to walk around with that burden. And be like, you know, you're not from here. I don't know why you're talking like that. But you're here, you should talk like us. Like that was, that was a normal attitude from where I'm from. I'm   52:54 like, just, like, just think about think about that shit. Like, I'm sorry to use such a dumb but   53:02 because you move to your 10 years before they did, you have the right to say how people should speak when they move here. And they're seeking the same things that your family was seeking when they came here, and it's just,   53:16 ah, I'm all sweaty.   53:20 Even, even if they are speaking English, the idea of like, well, you're speaking English differently than what I'm then how I'm used to hearing it. So I need I and I'm gonna shut that down. Because I can't understand you. There's, there's this really great study from a professor that I used to work with named Donald Rubin, where he had the same voice, recorded giving a lecture. And then he played it for a group of students. But he had two different pictures. And one was a white dude, I think it was a guy I can't remember, a white person and the other was somebody from East Asia or had features from the East Asia, I should say. And not it's the exact same voice. And the students were like, Oh, I didn't understand that one person I understood. The first one or I didn't understand to the extent that when they were actually questioned, like given up like a pop quiz on the on the lecture, they actually did worse. Because they're like, Nope, I'm not gonna know this person is bad. They just they close their ears do it. And   54:32 hey, thanks for taking time to listen to Mike and I Today, I wanted to talk to you just for one second about reviewing the podcast. It really, really helps us out and it places us higher on search engines, as well as the other podcast channels that publish our show. So if you listen to conventioNOTup, you dig what you hear. Take a second go out, give us five stars, give us a few kind words or just real words, whatever the hell you want to say. out there on the review channel of your podcast show.   55:08 I feel like those are the things that we should know more about as we figure out how to bounce out of this like outrage culture, however, whatever that means to you, because that in its own right is like this incendiary term, right? Like, everybody else is outraged, or I'm outraged or whatever. But ultimately, I feel like combining your first and your answer to the first question, when you say, you know, in summary, like, Listen, stupid.   55:32 The reality is that   55:36 it's what gets communicated. And if you don't pay enough attention to what's trying to be communicated, it's quite possible that you could inform yourself incorrectly. And here are the examples. You know, I mean, not everybody will be able to maybe identify with an example of a lecture in a classroom, but most people probably would, because that is such a distinct thing that I think that almost all of us can identify, you know, when humans are frustrated, at least in my experience, and this I mean, is by what I do, is we reach for a lifeline often, to justify our frustration, and if we can clean to that Lifeline in that Lifeline is incorrect. And it doesn't really save us, right, you know, it's sometimes it occludes us too early. And I wish more people could really approach life with such an open hearted, you know, a perspective, I think that probably requires being open to them when they're young. And when they come to mic, like, like you said, when you're when you're new to the place, so that so that those occlusions don't happen.   56:42 Another good example, to have that beyond the lecture. Example is   56:49 color customer service calls or tech calls. A lot of people have that they just keep hanging up until they get somebody that quote, unquote, speaks American,   57:00 like this person will not be able to help me. Right? Right. That's a real thing like to speak American, like, what a beautiful if we could just get a name and address of everyone who ever uttered that phrase.   57:19 positively, there's a really great   57:24 healthcare communication. Okay, and so we have overseas customer service. Those listeners who know the name of my company, maybe they could do this, I'm not going to link them together this way. But our best incoming customer service English is in the Philippines. Mm hmm. So would you like, like, that's where the phone calls come in. With such English as spot on. Compassion is great. There's very little hang, there's actually, you know, hang up that you could talk about probably from the customer service end, right. And so it's the Philippines. That changes actually, at least in my the past decade that I've been working internationally. Because, especially with healthcare, like you mentioned earlier, that accent is so important, right? However,   58:06 right, wrong, or in different call centers internationally make a heck of a lot less mistakes. A lot of people think it's just about the cost. But we shouldn't typecast that, it's that those international systems, as long as you know, we're able to train them with with the right accent, quote, unquote, right? They make less mistakes, and there's use of data to back it up. I would have never like, I would have just assumed it was 100% function of cost, which is I think,   58:36 is old school ignorant kind of   58:40 presumption. It really is, um,   58:44 oh, man, I'm really, really sharing my ignorance today.   58:49 That but you know, I, like I said, I'm down to be the dude in the crowd that raises his hand and he admits like, Hey, I'm here to be better. Um, I, that's a scary notion and in today's society, but if we all just kind of try a lot harder. That's the kind of unity I don't know. It's, I think it's a lighter question. But you know, I've we've found it sometimes delves into deep, deeper parts of our brains. Um, we asked us of a lot of our guests and I think I'm really really dying to hear   59:23 your response. Doctor, we   59:26 were curious, what do you think the 1516 year old Susie would would would think of what you're up to today where your passions are and kind of, or vice versa? If you if you would rather give some advice to that teenager, you can do that. But I want you to, I want you if you can bounce between now and then.   59:47 Um, I think I think 15 year old Suzy would be surprised, but really pleased with at least with like   1:00:00 The work that I'm doing and where I ended up in terms of a career, the the fact that, you know, me making a couple comments about my mom's accent, and the fact that my cousin's made fun of me for using y'all. It's like, wait, you turn that into a career? Good for you. You've written books on that topic. That's awesome.   1:00:25 You know, I, I think I would be proud of the work that I've been able to do to get people to think about things that they haven't thought about before and think about diversity in ways that   1:00:41 they overlook, oftentimes, I mean, we didn't throw around the word diversity so much when I was 15, and 16. But   1:00:50 But I think the I think that type of thing was in the back of my mind, at that point, I was interested at 16, I was starting to get interested in the idea of travel and other languages.   1:01:04 When I was I think I was 16, maybe 17, when I started studying Russian,   1:01:10 which is what I majored in, in college, still can't speak it, but that's what I meant.   1:01:16 So I think the fact that I would say, Oh, you went with that, but turned it into something different, I think I would be disappointed in the fact that I can't speak Russian fluently, or I can't speak Italian, which is what my family historically speaks, that I couldn't speak anything fluently. I think, I think I'd be like, really, you've had this long, you couldn't, you couldn't have worked with that.   1:01:38 But yeah, I but the idea of me being a teacher and a researcher, and an academic, would have shocked the crap out of me, because I, my parents didn't go to college.   1:01:51 I didn't know anybody who was a professor, I had no, there was no experience that would have made me think like, oh, teaching is the right role for you. And even when I entered a graduate program, I wasn't even thinking about that. I just wanted to learn some more. So I'd be really, really surprised to know that on a regular basis, you know, sometimes daily, I get up in front of 100 people and talk about stuff. And I am perfectly happy doing that. I love doing that, actually, what could the 16 year old version of you want more, you just said your career, I get a smile on your face has only gotten bigger the variety of subjects we've covered today, it's just a, you mentioned something there that I do have to touch upon, just that you forged this past yourself. Um, and that's, it's a common theme. A lot of our guests. I mean, it's called conventioNOTthat for a reason, um, but to me just say both of my parents are educators, you know, my, my dad has his PhD in education. My mom got her master's in the 80s. Um, but they don't, they're not engineers, they don't do what I do. Um, and so I really, I love that this was completely out of nowhere. And nobody you didn't have anybody to look up to and say, Yeah, that looks okay, I'll, I'll go down that path. So, to me, you get an extra applause for   1:03:18 you know, going out on this limb on your own and then making it awesome. Because you I mean, you use there's no way people meet you and wonder if you're happy and in your career and in your in your life, because you   1:03:31 and you're in the right spot.   1:03:33 You know, we get to spend a lot of like, personal time together. And sometimes wine comes out and all that kind of stuff and the nature of our lives. Yeah. Right. Sometimes the nature of our,   1:03:45 my wife, Anna, and   1:03:48 Susan's husband, Jamie, we were able to share some of our observances about where we're good at each other,   1:03:57 with each other, not at each other. But one of the things that is always so inspirational is about the way that that continually becomes kind of like part of our conversation. I always think when when we're in these groups of couples sharing about a line or whatever that might be, and I can't help but think that that's what dictates to like, being able to open up into conversations like this today, or really the way that you do, being able to influence young minds. You know, I mean, we didn't talk a lot about that today. Because, well, there was no reason we didn't talk about it. We're learning today. But I know that that's a big part of what makes you tick is to be able to have those relationships and to follow students getting into law school and making those you know, next steps to influence the world. So I hope that someday we could get you to come back and talk a little bit more about that.   1:04:48 In the meantime, if I want to get a hold of you, or if there's something that I there's this kind of two questions, one, how do I kind of you know, get a hold of you in the appropriate manner. But also, if I didn't want   1:05:00 Get a hold of you. But I want to learn about a career, whether that be in linguistics or as an educator, where would I go? And then I'll wrap us up however we do that, but this is this has really been one of our better interviews. I really appreciate this today. Thanks. I've had so much fun with this. Thank you so much. I'm so my full contact information is through the Emory University website, the linguistics program there and anybody can always reach out to me, send me an email is probably the best way to do it. And I'm happy to answer any questions that people have. There are a ton of resources out there about linguistics and about careers in linguistics. I like to point people to the linguistics Society of America, their website, especially folks that are starting school and thinking that they might be interested in studying linguistics, there's an entire area of wide major in linguistics, or what kind of fields can I work in? If I study linguistics? The short answer is everything. Like it applies everywhere, you can apply linguistics to every single career.   1:06:13 And so they have a lot of resources. There's also some really good books that are out there. There's one called the five minute linguist, and that I just started reading, and it's really, really short vignettes. And there's some videos that are out there that go along with it, of just like some of the key questions that people might have about language. So if anybody's just interested in like, really, really short ways of learning a little bit about language or the types of questions you can ask about language, it's a good book that I recommend. And   1:06:44 what about the ones you wrote? I mean, are those those worth recommending? Well, my textbook linguist language and linguistic diversity in the United States, 2015 by Rutledge   1:06:57 that we're working on the second edition, so that is available and it is online.   1:07:04 And it ends I have a new book called linguistic plants of belief, which talks about p southerners views about dialectal differences in the United States and about views about   1:07:20 man coming out. So that's coming out in October. It was supposed to come out this month, but it's been postponed. I was pulled on to this project with Paulina bounce and Jennifer Kramer some wonderful, amazingly bright women. But yeah, so linguistic planets of belief comes out in October. Okay, yeah, that that's why I'm excited for that October. That's my birthday month so anything going on in October it's gonna be great. It's gonna be well and right now more more to come upon this and I'm gonna be probably relatively certain that YouTube will meet face to face but Mike and I are talking about a South East trip in the month of September in which we will go throughout the southeast as Damn Yankees and experience the world. Everyone can hear us talk time. Yeah, yeah, Kara's   1:08:09 point.   1:08:11 Yeah, can I plug one more thing before we go just because of what our was talking about with what's happening in the us right now. We went to the North Carolina, North Carolina language and Life Project has just come out or not just come out last year came out with a documentary called talking black in America.   1:08:31 And you can look it up online talking black in America was talking Black america.com. But I can't remember. It is a beautiful hour long video documentary that interviews people and talks about what black languages in the United States and its history and its development in the social views that go along with listening and being a speaker of it. And for anybody that is thinking about   1:08:59 how to listen and how to communicate. It's a beautiful time to watch this video. Okay, thank you. I   1:09:07 will share that right away. Thank you. Yeah, we started by Well, well, it's really been a pleasure. I'm almost sad to hear it go to an end or at least better less listeners are but there will be more. I would love to have a Ask me anything about writing a textbook. I feel like that could be something that would be really really cool to be focused on. From from an expertise perspective. I'm good at telling people how not to write a textbook because exactly the process that I went through all the obstacles you trip down along the way right. I always thought that parenthesis tell the story anyways on the inside, right. So maybe maybe you could help set those bumpers on the outside. So just to close us down. If this is your first time listening to us if you found your way to us through Dr. Tamasi. We are conventioNOTnot and we promote ourselves through   1:10:00 Are interviewees and our guests and so on and so forth. So please take a second there are countless interviews out there that aren't similar to Susan's, but they are different. You will find many, many, many different types of careers, many, many different pursuits of happiness   1:10:17 with all of the diversity that we're talking about today, and different types of advice, and so on and so forth. So please take a second get out there, follow us on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter or LinkedIn or anywhere that you might go. We'd love to have you follow there. And we appreciate you listening today.   1:10:36 Thanks, doctor. Thank you guys. So much.

No one is certain how the 2020 general will turn out, but Andrew and Tyler discuss the issues in voting for “the lesser of two evils.” What are the moral implications of voting for Biden or voting third party? Secondarily, focus is given to the ridiculous “Plandemic” video that blew up social media recently. A baby can be heard crying in the background occasionally...

#81: My Depression Confession, PMS & Emotions, with Marisa MoonBrief Summary and Bio:This is my depression confession. (NOTE: There's a video for this episode you can find on YouTube: https://youtu.be/o4uJmvaA2L4Or on our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/FoundationofWellnessPodcast). I feel like there's something missing in the content out there right now; a vulnerability and authenticity that represents how many of us are feeling lately. I can't be the only one going through this. I have a tendency towards depression. Thankfully it hasn't been full blown or chronic for many years, lasting no longer than a few weeks at a time. And my most recent one was just last week. My depression seems to always turn up in one of two cases. Primarily, it's when my big plans get interrupted. Secondarily, it's around my cycle. Listen to this episode to learn what it was like for me, what I believe the trigger to be, and how I got out of it.Host: Marisa Moon is a Certified Primal Health Coach and host/producer of The Foundation of Wellness podcast. Marisa fuses together health coaching and life coaching to provide unique insights with a personable approach—all of which is inspired by the principles of ancestral health. Her distinctive coaching style is totally relatable, and it helps others put an end to the confusion about what's healthy today and finally achieve results that last….forget rules and end dieting so you can enjoy life. >>> Join me inside my facebook group: “The Foundation of Wellness - a Refreshing Diet & Lifestyle Chat”. Go to > facebook.com/groups/FOWpodcast Disclaimer: Consult with your doctor or functional medicine practitioner before trying any of the remedies or dietary interventions mentioned on The Foundation of Wellness podcast. This information and recording is for informational and educational purposes only.For professional Inquiries contact host Marisa Moon, marisa@ marisamoon.com>> Toxin-Free Low-Sugar Natural Wine?? Grab your free bottle of Dry Farm Wines with your first order here: www.dryfarmwines.com/fowpodcast SHOW NOTES:RESOURCES mentioned in this episode:- Beyond Mars & Venus Book https://amzn.to/2wMW3Jy (Amazon affiliate link)- Fletcher's Instagram post: https://www.instagram.com/p/B-YJ0OsBy6T/ - Follow Marisa on Instagram: @marisa_moon_ https://www.instagram.com/marisa_moon_/ Marisa's website: marisamoon.com LIKE our podcast on Facebook: facebook.com/FoundationofWellnessPodcast Follow us on Instagram: @foundationofwellness_podcast, https://www.instagram.com/foundationofwellness_podcast JOIN Marisa's Facebook Group “The Foundation of Wellness”: facebook.com/groups/FOWpodcast Points of Discussion:- Everyone's saying Life's not on hold, stay positive- What the depression was like for me - Emptiness and lack of purpose - Internet Issues - My workload - Pressure to leverage this time for work - What I turned to to lift my depression- Beyond Mars & Venus Book - Female Hormones and PMS - Progesterone boosting activities- Adaptability: one's ability to adjust thoughts and thinking to deal with new, changing, and uncertain situations- Fletcher's moving post on InstagramIntro/Exit Music  - "Ukulele Whistle" by Scott Holmes

An Adelaide based podcast by Shane Lockwood. Expect resistance. In everything you do there is going to be some sort of resistance. The closer you get to being your authentic self, you're going to encounter haters and trolls. Their goal is simply to get a kick out of saying nasty things, primarily. Secondarily, they want to get you to choose to quit doing whatever it is that you're doing. Troll Protocol: Don't feed the trolls. Update:Don't feel the trolls, let the trolls feed you. The podcast I mention is called "Work Our Way". If you'd like to support the show you can do so by doing any of the following: One - off donations to paypal: shane_lockwood@hotmail.com Per episod donations via Patreon.com/elasm FREE: Leave a 5 star review of Apple Podcasts Visit patreon.com/elasm FREE: Click like on the YouTube video. FREE: Follow me on Spreaker / Stitcher / iHeartRadio FREE: Tweet me of twitter: @shaido FREE: Email me at shane_lockwood@hotmail.com with soundbytes and feedback / complaints. If you want to send me snail mail: Shane Lockwood PO BOX 1067 Salisbury SA 5108 Australia

Join Nicole Greer, PPCC...a.k.a. "The Vibrant Coach" for a 15 minute illuminating coaching session where you'll gain understanding about LEADERSHIP. Everyone is a leader. Primarily, you lead yourself. Secondarily, the quality of your "self-leadership" begins to influence your relationships. Thirdly, your relationships impact your community. Ultimately, this shapes our world. This is huge! You must understand and start to take responsibility for your leadership. The quality of your character, your Vibrant Virtues, equate to your leadership effectiveness. People want to be in relationships, be led by, and shown the way by people who are excellent. And excellence comes from the quality of character found in the leader. Individuals that lead from virtues like resilience, courage, wisdom, and humanity simply inspire others with their "being". Listeners will gain insights into the four factors of character and choose a Vibrant Virtue to engage as "Habit Work."