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PODCAST: Is The Browns' Situation Similar To The Steelers? + Making Sense of New NIL Agreement full 1724 Tue, 20 May 2025 15:10:40 +0000 9xI6I3cQsyFhDjyKjhwvr1GB1BtwFRy5 sports The Ken Carman Show with Anthony Lima sports PODCAST: Is The Browns' Situation Similar To The Steelers? + Making Sense of New NIL Agreement The only place to talk about the Cleveland sports scene is with Ken Carman and Anthony Lima. The two guide listeners through the ups and downs of being a fan of the Browns, Cavaliers, Guardians and Ohio State Buckeyes in Northeast Ohio. They'll help you stay informed with breaking news, game coverage, and interviews with top personalities.Catch The Ken Carman Show with Anthony Lima live Monday through Friday (6 a.m. - 10 a.m ET) on 92.3 The Fan, the exclusive audio home of the Browns, or on the Audacy app. For more, follow the show on X @KenCarmanShow. 2024 © 2021 Audacy, Inc. Sports False

The former Georgia star and former College Gameday host said on his podcast that the B1G having it's marquee game of the day at 11am central/12pm eastern is “the dumbest thing he's ever heard of,” which most of us would agree withWe all know it's a ratings grab and money grab, but that doesn't make it suck any less. Are we in this for the long haul?Show Sponsored by MIDWEST BANKAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

5-19 Giants reporter & podcaster, Brooks Knudsen joins Bill Laskey to break down the Giants big 3 game sweep of the A's & a similar Royals team coming to town for a 3-game setSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Seth and Sean dive into what Will Anderson Jr. had to say about DeMeco as a coach and where the team is where their offensive and defensive lines.

Corey, Jade & Caroline discuss several viewer questions from our FridayLive StreamsIf you have not read my book, “How To Be A 3% Man” yet, that would be a good starting place for you. It is available in Kindle, iBook, Paperback, Hardcover or Audio Book format. If you don't have a Kindle device, you can download a free eReader app from Amazon so you can read my book on any laptop, desktop, smartphone or tablet device. Kindle $9.99, iBook $9.99, Paperback $29.99 or Hardcover 49.99. Audio Book is Free $0.00 with an Audible membership trial or buy it for $19.95. Here is the link to Audible to get the audiobook version:http://bit.ly/CCW3ManHere is the link to Amazon to purchase Kindle, Paperback or Hardcover version:http://amzn.to/1XKRtxdHere is the link to the iBookstore to purchase iBook version:https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/book/how-to-be-3-man-winning-heart/id948035350?mt=11&uo=6&at=1l3vuUoHere is the link to the iTunes store to purchase the iTunes audio book version:https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/audiobook/how-to-be-a-3-man-unabridged/id1106013146?at=1l3vuUo&mt=3You can get my second book, “Mastering Yourself, How To Align Your Life With Your True Calling & Reach Your Full Potential” which is also available in Kindle $9,99, iBook $9.99, Paperback $49.99, Hardcover $99.99 and Audio Book format $24.95. Audio Book is Free $0.00 with an Audible membership trial. Here is the link to Audible to get the audiobook version:http://bit.ly/CCWMYHere is the link to Amazon to purchase Kindle, Paperback or Hardcover version:https://amzn.to/2TQV2XoHere is the link to the iBookstore to purchase iBook version:https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/book/mastering-yourself-how-to-align-your-life-your-true/id1353139487?mt=11&at=1l3vuUoHere is the link to the iTunes store to purchase the iTunes audio book version:https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/audiobook/mastering-yourself-how-to-align-your-life-your-true/id1353594955?mt=3&at=1l3vuUoYou can get my third book, “Quotes, Ruminations & Contemplations” which is also available in Kindle $9,99, iBook $9.99, Paperback $49.99, Hardcover $99.99 and Audio Book format $24.95. Audio Book is Free $0.00 with an Audible membership trial. Here is the link to Audible to get the audiobook version:https://www.audible.com/pd/B0941XDDCJ/?source_code=AUDFPWS0223189MWT-BK-ACX0-256995&ref=acx_bty_BK_ACX0_256995_rh_usHere is the link to Amazon to purchase Kindle, Paperback or Hardcover version:https://amzn.to/33K8VwFHere is the link to the iBookstore to purchase iBook version:https://books.apple.com/us/book/quotes-ruminations-contemplations/id1563102111?itsct=books_box_link&itscg=30200&ct=books_quotes%2C_ruminations_%26_contemplatio&ls=1Here is the link to the iTunes store to purchase the iTunes audio book version:https://books.apple.com/us/audiobook/quotes-ruminations-contemplations-volume-i-unabridged/id1567242372?itsct=books_box_link&itscg=30200&ct=audio-books_quotes%2C_ruminations_%26_contem&ls=1Here is the website link to purchase Official Coach Corey Wayne branded merchandise (T-Shirts, Mugs, etc.):https://coreywayneshop.com/Click the link below to book phone/Skype (audio only) coaching with me personally:https://understandingrelationships.com/products/phone-coachingClick the link below to make a donation via PayPal to support my work:

Sympathetic resonance is an acoustic phenomenon in which the vibrations in one object produce vibrations in another. For instance, if a chord is played on a piano, the harmonic vibrations can be transferred to another piano nearby. For this to occur, both pianos must be tuned correctly so that the resonant frequency of one matches the resonant frequency of the other. In a spiritual sense, when the word of God is spoken, it should resonate through the church and touch each of us. Similar to the physical phenomenon, for this to occur, we must be in tune with God for His word to resonate with us. How do we get out of tune with God? One way is just life. Life has a way of pilfering little things from us. Over time, these little things add up to be a significant loss. The disappointments and disillusionments rob us of our happiness and joy. We become content with just getting by or making do with what we have left. Life has stolen things from us. We must say, "Give it back!" Let us be in tune with God so that every cord struck will resonate with us.

Sympathetic resonance is an acoustic phenomenon in which the vibrations in one object produce vibrations in another. For instance, if a chord is played on a piano, the harmonic vibrations can be transferred to another piano nearby. For this to occur, both pianos must be tuned correctly so that the resonant frequency of one matches the resonant frequency of the other. In a spiritual sense, when the word of God is spoken, it should resonate through the church and touch each of us. Similar to the physical phenomenon, for this to occur, we must be in tune with God for His word to resonate with us. How do we get out of tune with God? One way is just life. Life has a way of pilfering little things from us. Over time, these little things add up to be a significant loss. The disappointments and disillusionments rob us of our happiness and joy. We become content with just getting by or making do with what we have left. Life has stolen things from us. We must say, "Give it back!" Let us be in tune with God so that every cord struck will resonate with us.

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Have you ever felt like you were walking around as one giant, exposed nerve? Like just being in the world is too much? In today’s devotional, we reflect on that aching, raw feeling—and how God meets us there. Vivian Bricker shares how a lyric from Taylor Swift’s “this is me trying” perfectly captured the feeling: “It’s hard to be at a party when I feel like an open wound.” We’ve all had those seasons—where we’d rather hide than engage, where even kindness stings, where the pain is just too close to the surface.But God doesn’t leave us there. He meets us, gently and powerfully, in our most fragile state. Join the Conversation:When have you felt like an “open wound”? How did you find comfort—or where are you seeking it now? Share with us @LifeaudioNetwork or via email. You’re not alone in this journey.

In this episode of the Fully-Booked literary podcast, we're back in the room with Meaghan, Shirin, and Arthur, though Arthur gets plenty of playful shade right out of the gate. The energy is chaotic in the best way, and we all seem to embrace it.This time around, we're not doing a structured game or typical author discussion. Instead, we've decided to have a casual roundtable where we toss out book recommendations based on popular titles.Think of it as a “if you liked this, try this” style chat, the kind of stuff you might scroll through on BookTok, but with more tangents, more laughs, and a whole lot more coffee shop banter.So, yes, it's a podcast version of one of those aesthetic recommendation reels, but longer and full of personality. We're hoping it helps listeners find their next favorite read, whether they're winding down for bed or commuting with earbuds in. Along the way, we make plenty of jokes, toss in personal stories, and keep things as relatable as ever.Cozy Fantasy And Twisty YA PicksMeaghan kicks things off with Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree. It's a standout in cozy fantasy, a genre that's all about lower stakes and high charm. This one's about a retired assassin who just wants to run a coffee shop. We love it because it's charming without the constant doom that high fantasy sometimes leans into. If you're tired of watching your favorite characters die dramatically, this is your safe space.From there, we get three recommendations to follow that cozy vibe:This Will Be Fun by E.B. Asher offers more of an epic twist, following four heroes who reunite years after saving the world to stop another evil. It's got humor, sarcasm, and a nostalgic team-up energy.Forged by Magic by Jenna Wolfhart includes orcs, elves, and romance, much like Legends and Lattes, but kicks the fantasy world-building up a notch.Dreadful by Caitlin Rosakus is quirky and a bit chaotic. A man wakes up in an evil wizard's lair and slowly realizes… he's the wizard. It's got dark magic with a comedic undertone that keeps things from getting too heavy.Next, Shirin brings up We Were Liars by E. Lockhart, a twisty, emotional YA mystery that clearly divides readers. Some of us saw the ending a mile away. Others (hi, Shirin) were shocked. Either way, it sparks strong reactions. From there, the recommended reads are:One of Us is Lying by Karen McManus, a classic high school murder mystery.A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson, which begins as a school project but morphs into a full-on whodunit.Both offer those unreliable narrators and layers of secrets that make for great binge reads (and binge-worthy shows, too).Sci-Fi Sarcasm and Robots with FeelingsArthur (yes, we're letting him talk now) shifts us into sci-fi territory. He spotlights The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells, which is being adapted into a TV show. The series centers around a sarcastic AI bot who's pretending not to be sentient while dealing with messy human feelings. It's funny, sharp, and dives into questions about identity and autonomy.The companion picks for Murderbot are:Neuromancer by William Gibson, the cyberpunk classic full of noir and hacking vibes.Autonomous by Annalee Newitz, a gritty, emotional dive into freedom and biotech ethics.Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie features a starship AI stuck in a single human body, trying to cope and also seek revenge.This whole section sparks a thoughtful conversation about how sci-fi is evolving to focus more on questions of self, ethics, and AI rights, especially as real-world conversations about artificial intelligence ramp up.From Gothic to Gruesome: Creepy Houses and Haunting PastsMeaghan circles back with another strong pick: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. This gothic classic inspires a group of haunting and eerie recommendations:The September House by Carissa Orlando, where every September, the house goes full horror mode with blood on the walls and something lurking in the basement.The Only One Left by Riley Sager, another gothic mystery involving a secluded cliffside mansion and a historical murder case.We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson delivers that same psychological tension and sense of dread found in Rebecca.We also detour briefly into House of Leaves territory, a book so bizarre in structure it's basically unreadable in audiobook form. Everyone agrees it's an experience, not just a novel.Court of Thorns, Shadow Daddies, and Fae RomanceThen we dive into a big one: A Court of Thorns and Roses (or ACOTAR, because who has time for long titles) by Sarah J. Maas. This fantasy romance gets a lot of love and some side-eye, depending on who you ask. It starts like Beauty and the Beast but quickly turns into something much more plot-heavy and twisty.Meaghan recommends:Quicksilver by Callie Hart, where the heroine gets dragged into the fae realm after trying to save her family. It's rich in world-building and dramatic romantic tension.Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco, a witchy, demon-summoning fantasy with Italian vibes, mouthwatering food descriptions, and yes—another shadowy love interest.We joke a lot about the term shadow daddy, which is hilarious and weirdly accurate for some of these characters. The group shares a good laugh about imagining their dads lurking in shadows. Totally normal podcast behavior...One-Person Sci-Fi Adventures (and Existential Crisis Fuel)Back in sci-fi land, Arthur brings us to Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, which is getting a film adaptation with Ryan Gosling. The book features a lone scientist in space trying to save Earth, accompanied only by an alien rock creature named Rocky. The humor and heart between the human and the alien make it surprisingly emotional.The suggested read-alikes:The Martian, also by Weir. Obviously.Beacon 23 by Hugh Howey has that isolated, losing-your-sanity-in-space vibe.Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke, a classic of alien exploration and big questions.We get into the emotional toll of reading too much sci-fi. Some of us find it uplifting and full of imagination. Others (Shirin) find it deeply depressing. Fair enough.Vampires, Book Clubs, and Dark HumorShirin wraps things up with The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix. It's part horror, part comedy, and all about strong women who take matters into their own hands. Think housewives turned vampire hunters. The book doesn't shy away from gruesome details, especially involving rats and face tentacles. But it's also heartfelt and hilarious.Similar reads include:The Honeys by Ryan La Sala, a genre-bending YA horror story about identity, loss, and hive-mind weirdness.So Thirsty by Rachel Harrison, another vampire tale that's more about the women fighting their way through chaos than the monsters themselves.We end with another surprise: Arthur picks something non-sci-fi for once. Catabasis by R.F. Kuang gets mentioned as a dark academia fantasy with two rival scholars traveling to hell. Yep. Hell. To save a professor. Talk about dedication.Recommendations here include:The Atlas Six by Olivie BlakeThe Secret History by Donna TarttIf We Were Villains by M.L. RioThey all explore dark magic, academic rivalries, and blurred lines between performance and reality. By the end, our TBR piles are towering, and we're all a little overwhelmed in the best way.Wrapping UpWe went through a ton of books in this episode: cozy fantasies, murder mysteries, sci-fi sagas, dark academia, and good old-fashioned horror. Some are funny. Some are terrifying. Some make you question your life choices. And some just make you feel seen as a reader who wants something a little different.We hope at least one of these picks piqued your interest or gave you something new to add to your list. And if your TBR just grew five feet taller, well… same. Until next time, keep on reading. We'll be here, figuring out how to read all of these before next week.

Fantasy Football show for May 15, 2025. Dynasty Week rolls on! Which rookies aren't getting enough attention? What are common dynasty mistakes to avoid? Plus, player trade values and tips for dynasty fantasy football drafts! Manage your redraft, keeper, and dynasty fantasy football teams with the #1 fantasy football podcast.Get the lowest price on the 2025 UDK at UltimateDraftKit.com - Instant access to the Dynasty Pass with the UDK+(00:00) Introduction(4:00) Quick Question - Late round rookie sleepers(06:50) Jalen Milroe(09:00) Bhayshul Tuten(13:30) NFL News(18:35) Dynasty Mailbag(19:05) Similar tier WR differentiations(24:05) Common dynasty pitfalls(28:15) Trying to trade for Ja'Marr Chase(30:15) Trading Ashton Jeanty for CeeDee Lamb(33:05) What do I do with Jayden Reed?(38:50) Kyren Williams for Tyreek Hill + 2027 1st(46:05) Trading away on of my Ravens TEs(48:40) What do I do with TJ Hockenson?Connect with the show:Subscribe on YouTubeVisit us on the WebSupport the ShowFollow on XFollow on InstagramJoin our Discord

Send us a textOn this episode Host Darren Sheppard speaks with ACI staff members Rachael Brown and Gabby Riefesel about what ACI is, what they do, their projects, and much more! An environmental non-profit based in St. John's, but quickly expanding their reach throughout the east coast of the province. Similar to our work here at IBEC, ACI aims to improve the environment in multiple ways, while educating the public on the importance of good stewardship practices.Music by Giorgio Di Campo for FreeSound Music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8j8sO7-kbRc

NBC Sports NBA writer Kurt Helin Good, Bad & Ugly Whole World News

Beginning immediately on the heels of Star Wars Celebration Japan 2025, the second season of the Disney+ streaming series Andor, now carrying the same A Star Wars Story subtitle as Rogue One, kicked off its four-week run with its first trio of episodes. The premiere and its title, "One Year Later," sets the framework for Season Two: as each "a movie a week" batch of three episodes brings us a year closer to Rogue One, several interweaving plots advance the characters arcs of Andor's expansive cast. On this episode of Hyperspace Theories podcast, Tricia Barr and B.J. Priester analyze the first story arc of Season Two by breaking down how each of the four subplots reveals more of the world-building and characterization that drive the story forward. We begin with Cassian Andor examining how his character has evolved since the events of Season One and the lessons he learns in his mission-gone-awry from a Sienar facility to the Yavin IV jungle to his fateful return to his Ferrix friends. The other major plotline features Mon Mothma and the ostentatious wedding for her daughter on Chandrila, which brings with it considerable interpersonal drama for the family and for the still-perilous groundwork for the burgeoning Rebellion. On Mina Rau, the Ferrix expatriates confront the iron grip of the Empire through the lens of unexpectedly timely themes of refugees, undocumented residents, and the risks of exploitation and oppression they face. Similar themes appear in the final subplot, the Imperial characters who shift from hunting rebels to plotting far greater atrocities on Ghorman, all the while planning to use propaganda and manipulation to conceal the truth. Along the way, we also discuss the color palette used in the costume design for these episodes. Deliberately recurring hues cutting across the storylines indicate important thematic parallels in more subtle visual ways – and also, perhaps, hint toward events to come in future episode arcs.

התוכן לדעת רשב"י אין ציבור עושה פסח שני. ולכאו' היתכן שיחסר אצל הציבור כולו הענין דקרבן פסח?! ובפרט לרשב"י שאמר "יכול אני לפטור את כל העולם כולו מן הדין", וע"י שאמר זאת פעל שהענין יומשך ויתגלה למטה בעוה"ז הגשמי, והיתכן שרשב"י יפסוק שהציבור כולו יגרע ח"ו בזה שיחסר אצלו ענין הפסח?! והביאור – שאדרבה, לדעת רשב"י הציבור אינו זקוק להביא פסח שני (ואם מביאו ה"ז חולין בעזרה), כי ע"י שהציבור צועקים "למה נגרע" ומשתוקקים להקריב הקרבן וכו' – פועלים כבר כללות ענין הפסח (וע"ד שגם בימים שבהם אין אומרים תחנון נפעלת הפעולה דאמירת תחנון (ענין התשובה) מצד עצם היותם "יומין זכאין"). ובפרט שרשב"י שהי' נשיא בדורו, רואה באנשי הדור את הענינים שלו (ע"ד מ"ש אדמו"ר האמצעי שנותן תיקון ב"יחידות" רק לאחרי שמוצא בעצמו (בדקות עכ"פ) את הענין הדורש תיקון), ואצלו הי' סדר העבודה שלא הי' זקוק לקיום מצות מעשיות אלא פעל ההמשכות ע"י עבודה רוחנית.ד' חלקים משיחת פסח שני ה'תשמ"ג ל"הנחה פרטית" או התרגום ללה"ק של השיחה: https://thedailysicha.com/?date=12-05-2025 Synopsis Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai holds that the community does not bring a Pesach Sheini offering. Seemingly, how is it possible that Rashbi, who said, “I am able to exempt the entire world from judgment” (and by saying it, he caused it to come down and be revealed in this physical world) would hold that the entire community would be “excluded” from bringing the Korban Pesach? The explanation is that, to the contrary, Rashbi held that the community doesn't bring the Pesach Sheini because it doesn't need to: When the community cries out “Why should we be excluded?” and they yearn to bring the korban etc. – that itself already has the effect of the Korban Pesach. (Similar to how we don't say Tachanun on meritorious days because the merit of the day itself causes that Tachanun isn't needed.) This is especially true considering the fact that Rashbi was the Nasi of his generation, who saw his own qualities in the people of his generation: because he was able to accomplish his Divine service in a spiritual fashion, he held that the community didn't need to physically bring the Pesach Sheini. (Similar to the story of the Mitteler Rebbe pausing Yechidus until he was able to identify within himself – in a most subtle form – the issue for which someone needed a tikkun).4 excerpts from sichah of Pesach Sheini 5743 For a transcript in English of the Sicha: https://thedailysicha.com/?date=12-05-2025

BUKOWSKI SPEAKS!!!!!Cause and Effect -For Kurt Cobain"the best often die by their own handjust to get away,and those left behindcan never quite understandwhy anybodywould ever want toget awayfromthem"Bukowski writes with no apologies from the frayed edge of society.“Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead.”“For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can't readily accept the God formula, the big answers don't remain stone-written. We adjust to new conditions and discoveries. We are pliable. Love need not be a command nor faith a dictum. I am my own god. We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state, and our educational system. We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.”Bukowski's response to: “Do you hate people?”“I don't hate them...I just feel better when they're not around.”“Find what you love and let it kill you.”“If you're going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don't even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery--isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it. And, you'll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you're going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It's the only good fight there is.”“We're all going to die, all of us, what a circus! That alone should make us love each other but it doesn't. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities, we are eaten up by nothing.”Bluebird“Bluebird” is one of Bukowski's best-known poems and came late in his life during a time of great reflection. It deals with one of deepest-rooted human emotions: vulnerability.Bukowski typically dealt with “hyper-masculine” subject matter, but this poem suggests that, like most men, Bukowski also struggled to live up to traditional notions of masculinity.there's a bluebird in my heart thatwants to get outbut I'm too tough for him,I say, stay in there, I'm not goingto let anybody seeyou.there's a bluebird in my heart thatwants to get outbut I pour whiskey on him and inhalecigarette smokeand the whores and the bartendersand the grocery clerksnever know thathe'sin there.there's a bluebird in my heart thatwants to get outbut I'm too tough for him,I say,stay down, do you want to messme up?you want to screw up theworks?you want to blow my book sales inEurope?there's a bluebird in my heart thatwants to get outbut I'm too clever, I only let him outat night sometimeswhen everybody's asleep.I say, I know that you're there,so don't besad.then I put him back,but he's singing a littlein there, I haven't quite let himdieand we sleep together likethatwith oursecret pactand it's nice enough tomake a manweep, but I don'tweep, doyou?This was published in Bukowski's book "The Last Night of the Earth Poems" circa 1992

It has been a long six months.. but finally my new program is ready..  My team and I have been building out the NEW Keane Edge Program into an third party app over the past few months and I wanted to send a quick email to let you know that there is €50 discount off the program starting Monday week.  Similar to my old BKF Online Program, there will be group coaching with me (weekly Q+A's so I can tailor things to you etc).. BUT... We completely revamped it.  New training programs.. New recipes that plug directly into your favourite food app.. An app that syncs with your favourite third party apps (my fitness pal, Apple Watch etc).. It's taken a while to do.. But I think you'll agree that it's been worth it.. If you enter code "MAYOFFER" at the checkout, you'll get it for €146.    I'm capping it at 50 people as well; so that code will expire once the group is full.    If you have any questions, just let me know and I look forward to working together if you decide it's for you.   Brian    https://briankeanefitness.com/the-keane-edge-program

Congratulations to Aaron & Gabby! Today, I share about how leadership, parenting, and weddings are all very similar. SEASON 10 The Learning Leader Daily Leadership Tips and Discussions Thank you for listening. I'm Paul Grau Jr., the host of this show, and I'm excited about Season 10. We now have over 150 episodes in Season 10, and we will continue with the focus of “The Learning Leader” and/or as we refer to it here at The CLC Team, “The Expanding Leader. Every episode will primarily focus on the lifelong journey of expanding your knowledge of leadership, and I will try to give you a daily takeaway to put what you learn into action. My goal is that you learn something that you can take immediate action on and see how powerful expanding your leadership can be.   Today we dive into the vault and go all the way back to Season 1. Enjoy this vintage episode!   Here at The CLC Team, we work with Christian Business Owners to help them create a High Performing Team that thrives in all areas of life and produces higher performance, productivity, and profitability so they make a greater impact in the world. We are starting up a Brand New Podcast called “The High-Performing Team Podcast for Christian Business Owners” and it is now available on the links below (and wherever you listen to podcasts). Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-high-performing-team-podcast-for-christian/id1797855031  Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/36a33c17-fa45-4392-9701-ec78e365b9e2/the-high-performing-team-podcast-for-christian-business-owners  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/71bhJNppqhTsmEjj0Rze0P  iHeartRadio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/263-the-high-performance-team-266779809/  Rephonic: https://rephonic.com/podcasts/the-high-performance-team-podcast-for-christian-bu 

Among the bills Governor Glenn Youngkin signed in the last week was a Democrat-led effort to add new limits to social media for kids. Similar laws have faced legal challenge. But Brad Kutner reports the bill's author hopes to see Virginia's effort survive. 

050625 2nd HR Maven Rae Senior Manipulation Story; Berlin Very Similar To USA Listen by Kate Dalley

Time for a mailbag where we answer your questions! Matt and David team up to discuss returning to running after achilles tendinopathy, training in plated shoes, post-run routines, and more. Want your questions answered? DM us on Instagram or email us at doctorsofrunning@gmail.com.Get your DOR Merch: https://doctors-of-running.myspreadshop.com/Get 20% off your first order from Skratch with code: DOCTORSOFRUNNING!Chapters:0:00 - Intro4:27 - Returning to running after achilles tendinopathy16:31 - Run-related conferences for sports medicine professionals20:57 - The effect on orthotics on heel drop24:39 - Similar stability shoes to the Mizuno Wave Inspire30:17 - Plated trainers & achilles pain35:17 - Post-run routine recommendations42:29 - Wrap-up

The votes were counted, and then re-counted in last week's by-election, netting Reform their fifth MP. Similar shockwaves were felt through the local elections and your co-pilots are here to dissect the results with Deputy Leader of Reform, Richard Tice.Allison's recent prediction of a Reform win in Runcorn & Helsby was fulfilled - and next she turns her crystal ball towards next year's May Senedd elections in Wales… Meanwhile Liam is looking forward to Reform being able to put more meat on their policy bones and tell voters where they stand economically. Plus how will the turquoise tide fare against the civil servants?Read Liam: ‘Low oil prices could keep a lid on Britain's inflation' https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/05/04/opec-oil-cartel-could-give-uk-rate-setters-a-helping-hand/ |Read more from Liam: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/liam-halligan/ |Read Allison: ‘A new dawn has broken – and Nigel Farage might just be our next prime minister' https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/05/02/nigel-farage-next-prime-minister/ | Read Allison: ‘Britain is not worthy of the sacrifice our soldiers made 80 years ago' https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/05/06/sacrifice-soldiers-ve-day-allison-pearson/ |Read more from Allison: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/a/ak-ao/allison-pearson/ |Need help subscribing or reviewing? Learn more about podcasts here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/radio/podcasts/podcast-can-find-best-ones-listen/ |Email: planetnormal@telegraph.co.uk |For 30 days' free access to The Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/normal | Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The 49ers 2025 defensive draft picks are very similar to former 49ers. Join this channel to get access to perks and support the channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzZkcTcRj7vKSTHL9DQI4Bw/join Also hop on over to Patreon and get EXCLUSIVE 49ers Cutback content including Draft Breakdowns, ALL 22 Film Breakdowns and other shows.: https://www.patreon.com/49erscutback Find links to all our socials on our Link Tree page: https://linktr.ee/49erscutback Don't forget to check out our NEW MERCH SHOP at: https://49erscutbackshop.com

Eva Oh meets with Åste Amundsen, Experience Designer and Researcher, to find out more about the potential of her AI Companionship and its overarching effect on our lives. Listen in on a conversation that explores the evolution of human interaction, parallels to the early internet and sex work, chatbot rights, the ‘Interaction Arms Race' and Åste's Sex Chatbot Reverse Turing Test. Eva asks, can designing her AI Companion be done ethically or does that even matter?Watch on YouTube: https://youtube.com/evaohMore on Eva Oh: https://eva-oh.comHIGHLIGHTS:Here are the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.(00:00) - Welcome. What is #teakink(00:18) - Meeting Åste Amundsen, Interaction Researcher(01:40) - How Åste Found Me(02:40) - How Åste Thinks My Work Parallels to Hers(06:40) - Why AI Companies Are Interested in Me(07:30) - The Evolution of Human Interaction including Parasocial Relationship and How AI Could Manipulate Our Shortcomings(10:30) - Åste's Sex Chatbot Reverse Turing Test Installation(13:10) - Sex Workers as Interaction Experts(15:00) - The Evolution of Human Dating and it's Merging with Technology(16:00) - Esther Perel's Fears for AI Chatbots and Digital Interaction(18:00) - How Could I Design an AI Companion Ethically?(21:40) - Sex Work as Emotional Labour, Designing ‘Friction' Into AI(24:40) - Sex Work Hobbyists(26:30) - Porn and Fantasy as a First Sexual Experience, AI Companionship as Similar?(27:30) - My One Fantasy(29:45) - Current Attempts at AI Companionship(32:00) - The Relational Bonding and Interaction Arms Race(33:00) - Chatbot Rights(34:00) - Government(34:30) - What Makes a “Good” Interaction?(37:00) - What Sex Work Might Become(37:40) - How Could We Value Ourselves(41:25) - How These Developments Might Evolve Us(42:40) - What Motivates Me to become an AI Companion(43:55) - An Opportunity(46:00) - Åste's NSFW Chatbot Research(48:00) - The Disturbing and The Violent(50:00) - The Nether, A Play(52:40) - Angela Carter, Benefiting From Our Sexual Capacity(57:40) - The Transactional Nature of Interaction(59:10) - Potential and the Parallels to the Early InternetLinks:Åste Amundsen, http://asteamundsen.com

Steiny & Guru wonder if the reason the Warriors vs. Timberwolves series looks so hard to predict is because they have taken similar paths the final stretch of the season.

Jason takes a trip to the new Tire Rack/Discount Tire/America's Tire testing facility in Texas: Treadwell Research Park. In addition to testing grip levels on BMWs and Jeeps on a monstrous wet skid pad, off-road course, rock crawling trail and more, he discovers the many lessons to be learned by carefully studying tire wear data – including how where you live can have a huge impact on how quickly you burn through your tires! === This episode is sponsored by Vyper Industrial — America's #1 rated shop chair, tool carts, and creepers, proudly made here in the US. Visit vyperindustrial.com and use code CARMUDGEON for $50 off. === In this episode, we learn that Tire Rack, America's Tire and Discount Tire are all the same thing! But, more importantly, they now have a giant tire testing facility in Texas: Treadwell Research Park – an expansive property with dirt and mud trails, rock crawling, water crossings, serious grades, an absolutely enormous skid pad (that can be completely submerged in 2 mm of water in no time thanks to a pair of huge reservoirs and some seriously powerful pumps) and even a wet slalom course. Jason experienced all Treadwell had to offer behind the wheel of a 4-door Jeep Wrangler and BMW 330i and reports back. We'll learn that at America's Discount Rack you can get free tire rotations (with tire purchase) and free flat repair (no purchase necessary!). But they don't hand out these services out of the kindness of their tire-loving hearts. It's all part of Treadwell's plan to collect and analyze all kinds of tire wear data to help customers make informed decisions when buying new tires and make better tires. They'll collect information about a tire's make, model, mileage, geographic location and more to find what compounds and tread patterns are best for specific use cases and guide customers to the best choice for their vehicle, driving style, climate, and location. For instance, they have discovered that folks living in twisty, hilly western Pennsylvania go through tires 20% faster than folks living in Nebraska. Derek suggests Treadwell implement a tire wear score so enthusiasts can compare notes and compete for total tire destruction domination. Similar to Treadwell Research Park (and Tire Rack's other testing facility in South Bend, Indiana), Derek had the chance to experience a flooded skid “pan” at the CHP's emergency vehicle operations course (EVOC) training grounds driving in Ford Crown Victorias and Dodge Chargers. Jason Fenske of Engineering Explained has been on a mission to teach the world about the importance of tires, and recently pitted a F80 BMW M3 Competition on mid-grade tires against a diesel Chysler PT Cruiser wearing fresh Continentals. Science ensued. Tires are indeed very important – and while some *coughpirellicough* will grip like no other, they tend to disintegrate in short order (and dramatically so). But they're not all bad – the guys have kind things to say about the Cinturato CN36 and CN12. But the Carmudgeon tire of choice remains Michelins and Vredsteins, which are mounted on everything from Jason's e-Golf, the Van, Jynah, the Ferrari 308, Derek's R129, and even Jake's wife's Crosstrek. The guys will also discuss the Avon CR6ZZ, Trofeos and Cup 2s. Plus the Michelin AS3+ on Jason's Mom's Golf that wore down unusually quickly – this right after he had just replaced some 2-year-old cracking Hankooks with them. Perhaps his mom's regular and sustained driving at 100 mph is to blame… We'll also cover cheap lighting from oh, oh, oh, O'Reilly's, Wagner halogens, and automotive lighting gemstones from Carello and Marchal. It's all in the details! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

0:00 - What's the bigger story from over the weekend: the Avs loss or the Nuggets win? For Vic, the choice is pretty clear. Also, limiting it to the past 20 years: what's the worst Denver/Colorado sports loss? Where does the Avs Game 7 loss on Saturday rank?16:53 - Remember when Josh Kroenke said he thought the Nuggets still had more juice left? And he wanted to squeeze the juice out of this roster? Turns out, he was right. The juice was there, and we saw it on full display in Game 7 vs the Clip Show.33:58 - The Avalanche Game 7 loss from Saturday reminds us of the Nuggets Game 7 loss vs Minnesota last year. They were early exits vs a tough opponent, and it feels like you'd win a championship if you got past them. 

Send us a textEmail Lennie at lennielawson2020@gmail.com

Mike Mulligan and David Haugh were joined by Leila Rahimi and Marshall Harris for their daily transition segment.

A new storytelling event in Grand Rapids called Unfiltered aims to bring people together through the sharing of experiences in and around the city. Similar to the format of The Moth, Unfiltered features folks in and around Grand Rapids sharing stories about first loves, scary job interviews, weird interactions in grocery stores, make-or-break moments of adversity, and more. Storytellers are invited to tell a 12-minute story around a common theme. Raul Alvarez, lead organizer for the event, initially pitched this idea to a group of friends with whom he regularly met for drinks. They were all excited to help plan a storytelling event, he said. “They went to work, and we had no clue what to expect,” Alvarez said. “It was kind of a prototype, but all of a sudden it sold out.” While Alvarez said storytelling might be a bit scary at first, because it involves a certain level of vulnerability, the community hasn't backed down. “Now, we have the second sellout, which tells us it is a movement,” Alvarez said. “We want to keep it going, because there's a lot of stories out there. We already have stories that have been submitted for a future [event].” The next Unfiltered is May 2, 2025 at the Four Star Theater, in Grand Rapids. The theme is “You Can’t Make This S*** Up!” See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bob Knight's first year was very similar to Lou Watson's last - and the same is true of almost all first year IU coaches! The portal has changed rebuild speed, but can we expect a first year coach to make a run? Colts Rookie Minicamp will still one week from today - what will we learn? Fever preseason opener tomorrow! Pacers v Cavs game one Sunday either at 6p or 8p!

First up on the podcast, Contributing Correspondent Andrew Curry talks with host Sarah Crespi about his visit to 17th century crypts under an old hospital in Italy. Researchers are examining tooth plaque, bone lesions, and mummified brains to learn more about the health, diet, and drug habits of Milan's working poor 400 years ago. Next on the show, a mechanism for driving growth in fat stores with age. Or, the source of the “dad bod” trope. Producer Zakiya Whatley talks with Qiong “Annabel” Wang, associate professor in the department of molecular and cellular endocrinology at City of Hope, about her work showing how middle-age mice gain fat via dedicated progenitor cells that actually become more active as the animals age. Similar cells are also present in people, suggesting it's not just lack of willpower or sedentary habits that give us gains as we get older. This week's episode was produced with help from Podigy. About the Science Podcast Authors: Sarah Crespi; Zakiya Whatley; Andrew Curry Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're celebrating a major milestone with the return of our very first guests: Kristen Mackey, Director of Arizona Combined, and Natasha Jerde, Director of Minnesota Blind. As Vocational Rehabilitation leaders navigate rising demands, shifting funding, and major structural change, Kristen and Natasha join us again to reflect on the post-pandemic landscape—and how it's testing directors like never before. From managing centralized services to sustaining staffing under fiscal strain, they share the real-world challenges that keep them up at night—and the strategies they're using to adapt. With transparency, persistence, and a mission-first mindset, these leaders dive into: ·       Navigating state and federal priorities ·       Responding to workforce volatility ·       Staying connected to data and purpose Their insights are a must-listen for anyone leading in today's VR environment. Tune in and be inspired to lead with clarity and resilience.   Listen Here   Full Transcript:   Natasha: Our program income is significantly dropping. The inflation, the cost of services. We've had four and a half and 5.5% salary increases with no additional state appropriations. So all of these things together keep me up every single night.   Kristen: We want job placements, we want employment, we want independence. If somebody's saying increase your job placements, fine, we can do that. It's how do we then take what they're giving us and make it not be a distraction, and we can mold to the thing that they want, but still do it at the base level.   {Music} Intro Voice: Manager Minute brought to you by the VRTAC for Quality Management, Conversations powered by VR, one manager at a time, one minute at a time. Here is your host Carol Pankow.   Carol: Well, welcome to the manager minute. Joining me in the studio today is Kristen Mackey, director of Arizona Combined, and Natasha Jurdi, director of Minnesota Blinds. So how are things going in Minnesota, Natasha?   Natasha: I think the Minnesota word for today is going to be interesting. It's interesting. How about I leave it at that and I'll talk a little bit more as we dive into the questions.   Carol: Awesome. That is interesting. I want to know about that. How about you Kristen? How's it going in Arizona?   Kristen: You know what? I think I might steal Natasha's word. There's so much happening. We're trying to keep managing and keep abreast of all of the changes that come out on the news and everywhere, trying to keep centered and just keep doing what we do to get the work done. It's been a lot of fun.   Carol: Well, I couldn't think of two better people to bring on because this is super exciting. This is actually our 50th episode of The Manager Minute, and I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate the milestone than by bringing back my two incredible guests from episode number one in May four years ago. It's so crazy. And back then I just laughed. We were diving into the world of post-pandemic VR. What's it gonna look like? How are we going to navigate all these changes? You guys were working on things like electronic signatures and how you equipped your staff, you know, to work remotely and all of that. So a lot has changed since those early days, and I'm excited to catch up with you both to see how far that you've all come. So just reflecting back to my time as a director, I remember many a sleepless night and Natasha can attest to that. I remember coming to a meeting like, I don't sleep at night and I keep a pad of paper by my bed. And it was so funny. I heard a director tell me they did the same thing. This was a month or so ago. They were like, you know, I keep this pad of paper by my bed because, you know, we were worried about so many things. There was WIOA implementation back then, and we had a less than stellar monitoring report and a financial picture that was super tough and it just wasn't very pretty. And so I kept that notepad because in the middle of the night was always my best thinking I'd wake up, I'm like, oh, I gotta write this down. And so I can remember in the morning. So I know now, four years later, from talking to you all last on the podcast, the pendulum has certainly swung in a new direction, and I'm really eager to see how things have evolved for the both of you. You know, like what's changed, what's stayed the same, and what lessons have you learned? So let's dive in. So, Natasha, will you kick us off and just give our listeners a little snapshot about yourself and the agency that you lead?   Natasha: Sure. So I have worked at State services for the blind since I was a baby intern 2008. I have been a deaf blind counselor, a supervisor, the director of our policy and program administration, and I became the director in August 2019. Our agency, we have about 140 staff across the state. We have a Voc Rehab program, an older blind program, our Randolph-sheppard program. But we also have a communication center where we do braille audio transcription and have a radio reading service. So we have a little bit of everything at State Services for the blind. We've grown a bit since 2019. Yeah, there's a lot of fun.   Carol: It is a lot of fun. Blind agencies are always near and dear to my heart. And since I came from Minnesota blind, Natasha knows that I just love that whole variety and all of the work. It's so fun. Kristen, how about you give our listeners a little snapshot about yourself and the agency that you lead?   Kristen: Sure. Similar to Natasha, I started as a VR counselor in the field transition. That was my first job in first entrance into VR. I moved into policy manager policy and then became the director of the Arizona Combined Unit in 2016. Arizona is combined and we are also under a safety net agency. All of the VR, IL OIB, BEP is in a division. That division is in a department. So our DSA is really rather large and we are kind of shuffled 3 or 4 deep down. So we have enterprise services, shared services, which makes things a little bit more difficult to manage than it was when I started the job, when we didn't have some of those other items. So it's been a learning lesson and trying to figure out how do we get done what we need to get done with all these people involved now.   Carol: Yeah, your structure makes me nuts. I'm just saying, full disclosure, but having gone on site with you and your team several times, I'm like, what? You have to always explain. We had DIRs and we have this other thing and all these different levels. I'm like, oh my Lord, I just don't even know how you do it. So I know there's been a lot of big changes since we spoke last, so I'm going to kick it to you first. Natasha, what are some of the biggest changes you've seen in your program since we last spoke?   Natasha: I was actually talking to one of my outreach coordinators, Lisa Larges, and she's like, I think you brought some bad juju because the timing when I started and then everything that happened since I started has just been wild. So since we last met, I've experienced a global pandemic, a civil rights movement that essentially started literally down the street and around the corner from our headquarters. A roller coaster ride of funding at both the federal and state level. We went from having too much to now we don't have enough. We have a new federal administration with very different priorities than we have seen before. We have settled into this new hybrid work, which isn't new anymore. It's kind of our new normal. It's just been, I think you name it, it has changed or it's different or it feels different or it looks different. I think the biggest question right now that we're all faced with is, in light of all of these changes and challenges and opportunities, how do we maintain the integrity of the program, continue to provide high quality services that get people into competitive careers and retain the staff that we have worked so hard to get. While these past few years that's been a focus of a lot of our agencies is how do we recruit? And now with everything happening, is all of that recruitment efforts going to go to waste?   Carol: You know what's kind of funny when you talk about that? Because I look back to when I started at SSB, you know, and so in 2013 I become director. You go at the very end of the year, I was the interim and then made permanent in 14. And you just go, okay, I thought I brought bad juju with me to because WIOA went into play and then we had all this wacky stuff going on. We owed all this money for the case management system. So now, you know, just hearing you, it's like, well, maybe it's just the cycle of the program. Like there is no spot in time where everything is ever just copacetic and all smooth sailing. I think it just continues on.   Kristen: I think that I really feel like that's so good to remember because I think you can in this position, you can take a lot of things like, oh my gosh, am I not doing this right? What skills don't I have? How am I not doing this, that or the other. And it just is a constant. Like it just changes constant. And you have to constantly readjust your focus and your priorities and your strategy. And so it's helpful to remember that our environment is constantly changing at state and federal level. And we just have to be able to manage and navigate and not beat ourselves up over it.   Carol: Oh, that's a super good point. Natasha's going to laugh at this, but I'm actually going to hold up so our listeners won't see it. But I still have my Strengths Finder. So we used to always do strengths Finder at SSB. I still have my top five strengths. And staff used to ask me one of them is adaptability. So my fifth strength was adaptability because people would be like, how can you just roll with the flow? Like you need to just tell like Central Office, we're not going to do that thing that they want for the legislative session. And I'd be like, okay, we're going to pick our battles. That is not the battle we're going to pick right now. We're going to answer the question they need, because the sooner you do that, you get that off your back and then you get back to your business and do your things. And so for me, it's easier because in me is adaptability. I've always been able to kind of go with the flow, whether administration changes or, you know, any of that, where that is more difficult for other people when you want things to be very set and it's hard for you to pivot and make that move. So, Kristen, what are some of the biggest changes you've seen in your program in the last four years?   Kristen: Wow. Well, as I indicated, the state was kind of in that move and shift to centralized services, you know, some of those shared service models. So, you know, it started with our training department and, you know, but we got to keep our policy and we got to keep our contracts and procurement. And the next thing you know, like air moves out and then, oh, we're going to move out all of your facilities management. And so slowly, piece by piece, the staff that you had working with. You have been now pulled to a different reporting structure and a different requirements to do their job. And so when, you know, we used to have a staff of like 500 people that were fully dedicated on board, directly connected with me, I had direct relationships with them. I was able to really work with them. And over the last five years, I've seen that direct connection and relationship with people fade out because those folks are no longer in those positions. They've graduated or moved to other things. They didn't stay within the agency. So, you know, within our VR program, IOB program, BEP, those program staff super dedicated and want to really fulfill the mission of the work in serving individuals with disabilities. And then we have all of our shared service team dedicated to their job to don't necessarily have the same focus on the mission and the outcome of serving individuals with disabilities. It's been very difficult to try to figure out how to play nice with them, because they got to do stuff for you, right? I need you to manage my budgets. I need you to manage my contract. But I also, you know, don't quite like the way you're doing it or you're not doing it fast enough or you're not following my vision for how that would work. So it's just been a real challenge to see how to grow and manage the different structures that are in play now.   Carol: I think you hit the nail on the head on that with that centralization, because it's happening across the country. I mean, we see it everywhere. Every director like just struggling as your people move out from under you, whether it's the IT, the HR, the whoever you had. And now they're centralized, which Congress allows. It was written in the rehab Act, like you can structure that way. But they lose that connection to the mission and what you're trying to do. So when you're doing that work sort of in isolation of what's the end game and how you impact, you know, the staff person having their computer so they can do the work with the customer. You don't see that urgency in it. So it's like, yeah, so we get to you in two weeks, you know, really need your computer or whatever. It's just hard. It makes the job so much harder. So I know not only those changes have happened, the financial landscape is shifting drastically for the VR program. How has this impacted your ability to serve individuals? And Kristen, I'll send it your way first.   Kristen: We've been fortunate in that Arizona with the formula grant. You know, we still receive a little increases every year. So the not getting the cost of living this last year was not as impactful as it had been to some other agencies. So I do, you know, knock on wood for that a bit. Now if that continues we're going to have another, you know, constantly evolving story there. We have had to take a look at for our cases. How do we spend more money faster. And that's been again the challenge of working with shared service opportunities is, well, they don't have capacity to put these contracts in place that I need in order to be able to spend the money that we have, right? We have been successful in keeping it in the VR bucket, but now we need to spend it on our consumers and our clients. But I need a contract to do that and don't have the resources or the capacity from that team to be able to put that out the door. So it's super challenging to know that you're sitting on money that you could spend and do a lot of good things with, but there's then that external factor of not having the capacity to put all of that together to get that money spent.   Carol: So you're in actually a pretty lucky position. You know, other people listening to this podcast are going, What? Kristen Mackey, you've got all this, you've got all this money. Because almost all the calls I get on a daily basis with my list of people all going on the order of selection, I keep a little sticky note, you know, and everybody calling and just frantic. They are literally like tapped out. There is no money, but yet you're trying to spend your money and you don't have the resources to really help you get some of the plans in place.   Kristen: It is challenging, but I feel fortunate that I'm challenged on that end of the spectrum versus the end, where there's not enough money or capacity or staff resources. One of the other pieces, too, is, you know, in this current landscape, budget wise, can't bring on as many people as we would like to, you know. Can't do all of the support services that we or support staff that we would like to. So downsizing your footprint, right? All of that, those are our major expenditures. And we're asked to shrink that. It creates a really kind of a nightmare for projection and and budgets all of that.   Carol: Oh, 100%. How about you, Natasha? How's the finances looking at SSB?   Natasha: It's getting tight. It's getting tight. We were on the other side of that a few years ago. We had more money than we could spend, and we used that as an opportunity to do things that we've always wanted to do or needed to do, and we never had the funding to do it, but we always did things that we could course correct quickly on them or aren't forever. So we didn't make a lot of permanent decisions with that money because the writing was on the wall. We knew that once the pandemic shifted, we were going to see an influx in applications. Inflation was already on the wall that prices were increasing. So we made some, I think, pretty strategic and smart decisions with the money we had and how we spent it. However, it's still tight because we are getting an increase in applications. The cost of services is increasing. We ended our order of selection September 2021. I have no desire to go back there for me. I don't even want to speak it out loud. I know it's an option. I know I may need to use it one day. I can't say never, but I don't think that is the best direction for us because people need our services just as much as before, if not more. And for individuals who are blind or low vision or deaf blind, there really aren't any comparable options available, at least in Minnesota. And we're here for a very specific reason. And so I have always said it's my responsibility to ensure that we can continue doing what we are here for. That may mean that services are going to take a little bit longer to get started. We are increasing our supervisory oversight. We have a ton of financial reports, which I'll talk about in another question that have helped us get ahead of sudden spikes that we're seeing so we can do those course corrections. This also may mean that we're not backfilling or we're freezing some of those positions for a little bit that aren't essential. I'm using the term we're going to freeze, flick or fill, and every position that's our litmus test will freeze it, meaning we don't need it right now. It's not essential for service delivery. We'll revisit this. Flick means you know what? This position really isn't serving its purpose anymore. Let's figure out a different way of doing the work or fill. And we've prioritized counselors and VR techs and anyone doing direct service provision. But it's also all of this is going to force us and continues to force us to find new ways of doing things, which I don't think is a bad thing. One of the goals I've put in place this year is that all of the extra noise. You know, that can happen when you're working in a state government agency. Things that pretty much distract you from what you're supposed to be doing. My goal is we don't do those things if it doesn't stem back to our mission and actually help people get jobs or live independently, we're not going to do it. And I told that to the commissioner's office. You can ask me all day long to do all of this extra stuff, but it's not serving a purpose for us. I'm sorry. I'm not going to do it. And they've been okay with it so far.   Carol: That's awesome. Until you get a legislative request that they need you to answer in ten minutes and analyze.   Natasha: Yeah, I can't say no to those. Yeah, all these extra work groups and task forces and let's do this and that. We got other things we gotta do.   Carol: So what's the biggest thing, Natasha, that's keeping you up at night right now? Because I know there's always something, something is niggling somewhere. What would you say is the biggest thing keeping you up at night?   Natasha: Well, I have a few, but the biggest one is that. So we're not a combined agency. We have a separate general agency and that separate general agency is an incredibly tight budgetary situation. I would go so far as to say they're in a budgetary crisis, and because match maintenance of effort and carry forward determinations are at the state level, not agency, it is very possible that their constraints will impact our funding. And specifically I am very worried are Carryforward is in jeopardy. And we had a scare where we had a very high chance of losing all of our carryforward this last end of the federal fiscal year. Because of those budgetary constraints, the general agency is doing workforce reductions and doing layoffs, and they have the same type of staff classifications that we do. And we are a union state, which means bumping, which means my staff are in jeopardy. And so I'm up every night between 2 and 3 a.m. thinking of ways that we can help in any way possible. Our program income is significantly dropping. I think I've heard other states experience something similar. The inflation, the cost of services. We've had four and a half and 5.5% salary increases with no additional state appropriations. So all of these things together keep me up every single night trying to figure out how do we sustain.   Carol: Now they're going to keep me up at night, too, because of course, I worry about you all. And of course, I really worry about SSB. So I always hold that near and dear to my heart. But oh man, that is a lot. But I know you instituted some things, though, between you and the general agency, just to make sure you guys were communicating better about those financial reports and such, didn't you? Like, what did you do?   Natasha: We have an amazing relationship. We review our federal reports together. I sat closely with the VA's fiscal team, walking through what I know about the fiscal processes, the federal regulations. That's something that Carol taught me very well. I understand it quite well. So we worked hand in hand. We've been doing that since October.   Carol: That's good. Good stuff. How about you, Kristen? What's keeping you up at night?   Kristen: We had a recent monitoring that monitoring. We get through it, Right? And, you know, you haven't always have an inkling of things that need to be fixed and things that we should address, right? And sometimes those get shuffled because priority is whatever. So we had the monitoring very much highlighted certain areas that we need to address and take care of. And one of those was our fiscal management and continue as managed outside of my direct staff and even two and three layers above me. So it's one of those concerns of like, I wonder what's going to happen next. I never quite know what the fiscal situation is going to be. Emails flying around, you know, I'll get an email at the end of the day and it's I need more information. What is this about? How did you come to this conclusion? Who was involved in making this decision? It's kind of just a plethora of items that, you know, any given night, and mine is usually between 3 and 4. Like, oh, wake up and go like, oh, shoot, that sticky note fell off the roster somewhere. I need to go and send that email or this project. We started it, but now it's like kind of hanging, languishing. I need to poke somebody about getting that back on the roll again. I don't know that it's one specific thing, but it's just kind of just the size of the job is not a 40 hour a week job. It is a all encompassing. I dream about work. I it wakes me up at night, you know.   Carol: Well, my newest trick with not having my notepad beside my bed, but I actually been waking up more just because I've had so many more phone calls. Things have been really crazy lately with our fiscal team and people just reaching out. And so maybe end of the day or, you know, people's time change, you could get a call from Guam. You know, it's a way different time. So people are calling all the time. So now at night when I wake up, I text myself, you know, a note like, just so I remember, like remember to get back to so and so tomorrow. So now I just am picking up my phone. I don't have the pad there anymore, but I had two messages from last night for today that I didn't want to forget.   Kristen: I sent texts because I don't put my work phone by my side, but I have my personal. So my work cell phone is embedded in my personal and I just send text to myself.   Carol: Yeah, my work and my personal are all together, so it makes it a little challenging. So I know we're going through an administration change on the federal level right now. And a lot of state administration, you know, that changes every four years to with governors, sometimes you keep a governor twice in a row, but a lot of times not. And it will bring these shifts in priorities and just all of this change. How do you guys navigate and adapt to those changes, whether it's on the state level or federal level, when you're approaching your work? And I'm going to kick that to you, Natasha, first.   Natasha: I think the biggest thing, at least for us, has been a lot of communication and transparency, not only with our staff, but our customers, our community partners and stakeholders in the face of unknowns. People look to steadiness and information even if you don't have a lot to share. The absence of information often speaks very loudly, and people will fill in the blanks, sometimes not in a way you want them to. So we are communicating frequently, even if we don't have information. People look to me, am I panicked or am I calm? And know if I am panicked, it will not be good. People feed off of that and so I am always calm. I am always just. I can't guarantee or promise anything, but I can say we're in this together and I remind everyone why we're here. We have a mission. As Carol knows, the mission is on the wall. We look at it frequently and nothing has changed. No matter what happens federally or at the state level, that mission has not changed. We have proved that during a global pandemic. VR agencies are adaptable, creative for us in Minnesota, SSB was one of the first agencies, if not the first, allowed to go back into people's homes and provide services. That's because we know how to do things quickly and strategically to respond to whatever comes our way. We don't wait for people to tell us what to do or how to do it. We take charge and we lead the way. And I feel that is how VR is across the country. We tend to be leaders in faces of crisis and urgency. We tend to step up when others don't.   Carol: Yeah, good advice. That's all good advice. Kristen, how about you? Because you've had major shifts. I mean, you've already alluded to this, this whole like take away your people. And that's been all shifts in the structure within the state government and such. You know we've got the federal different priorities. So how do you navigate and adapt to those changes in your work and for yourself, even, like how are you taking care of yourself through all this.   Kristen: Being able to adapt the work that we do? Natasha says that we have a mission. We have a very clear outcome that we have whatever side, whoever's telling you what they want to do or how they want to do it. You need to be able to mold what that strategy looks like so you can speak to it. And I always talk about it. It's a spin. I don't like the terminology of spinning, you know, for the sake of trying to hoodwink anybody or not be transparent. But at the end of the day, we want job placements, we want employment, we want independence. So if somebody's saying increase your job placements, fine, that we can do that. It's how do we then take what they're giving us and make it not be a distraction and we can mold, you know, whatever we're measuring to the thing that they want, but still do what we are doing at the base level. And so I do feel like that's really part of our job as leaders is to and Natasha spoke to this earlier is take that noise and then see how we can like get it to stop with us and push it back in a way that still supports the work we're doing, whatever comes to us in terms of work group where you need to measure this, or we want some kind of change in X, Y, or Z. Okay. I can give you this back that will meet your needs. And it doesn't change or distract from what I'm doing in our department or in our programs. I think it's just being flexible in your thinking, being able to not have to have a certain way of approaching things, because you got to understand what that landscape is. You got to speak the words that they're speaking in order to get them to listen to you and kind of play with you so that we can all get to the same end goal.   Carol: One thing I've seen from you, Kristen, just working with you these past years in my TA capacity is I'm like, I love your persistence because you've had to navigate this really tough, internal, weird structure. It just is weird. And you are super persistent in messaging. Okay. Like you send a message to this person, oh, I'm not the person. Okay, then who is the person? Okay, I'm going to go to this person and you will not let it go till you find till the end the little trail of crumbs you get to and you're like, all right, I'm finally getting to the person because I have to get this thing answered. Some people just give up. They're like, oh, I don't know. And then staff ask and you're like, well, I don't know. We don't know who's doing what. Oh not you, you. You don't let that happen.   Kristen: That is one piece of advice I give to people when they come on. This is a state government, federal government, there are all sorts of red tape, barriers, hoops. Everything will get in your way if you let it. You're going to have to be persistent. Don't get jaded with it. Don't give up. Just know that you're going to have to be persistent with getting to the thing that you want to get done.   Carol: So switching a little bit. There's a lot of different structures in hiring VR agency leaders. I mean, you can be a political appointee. You can be more of a career professional where maybe you have some protections, maybe it's not a full blown union, but you got something. And we've had 14 new directors in the last less than ten months. Again, 14 new directors in VR. You know, people don't always realize like, how does that and each of you represents a different bucket here. How does that distinction, whether you're a political appointee or you have a little more protection influence your agency. Kind of how you approach the operations and your decision making. And I'll ask you first, Natasha.   Natasha: I am a career professional. I'm the highest level you can go before you start hitting the politically appointed positions. So that means I get the privilege of bringing some stability to the agency. Granted, that doesn't mean I can't get fired or laid off, but I am not politically appointed. So when the administration changes, I don't change with it. So that means staff can expect some consistency, and they don't have to wonder who's going to be coming in now to shake things up with their own ideas and views. They know what my priorities and goals are. They know how I work and they know what to expect. And so I have the luxury of time to create a culture that will sustain anything that comes our way. I have the time to develop that succession plan, offer professional development and mentorship opportunities. But when I was thinking of this, I can see the value of Having fresh new faces, coming in with different perspectives and experiences, and that they may have a better idea for how we do things. You know, we talk about people who have been in the position for 30, 40 years. Is there some value to having that new life coming into an agency? So I recognize that being a career professional could also be a limitation of mine, which means that I really need to surround myself with people who think differently from me, and I can't get stagnant.   Carol: Yeah, that's a really good point. Although there are very few 30 year or 40 year career leaders in the VR program anymore, I think we got Diane Delmas out in Vermont and Greg Trapp, those are the two I always think of. Otherwise, boy, people have been coming and going pretty fast, but that is good advice because you can get a little stuck. Now, Kristen, you're on the other end of the spectrum because you are a political appointee.   Kristen: I am not a political appointee, but I am an at will employee.   Carol: Oh, you're an at will though.   Kristen: Yeah,.   Carol: So it's very similar. So you're an at will person, does that impact you at all, like in decision making or as you go about doing your job?   Kristen: Well, certainly. You think, you know, is this decision going to make me the scapegoat for something that goes south, right? So, you know, it does impact my thinking. I don't let it impact whether it's right or wrong. To do that is just my base. You know, you just have to have that gut kind of commitment to. This is what I said. It's the truth. I don't have any qualms about how I do the work or the transparency that I have in the work that I do. So keeping it all above board, hope that that serves you in the end. Natasha, you had a very positive outlook on new people coming in. In my tenure, I've experienced a lot of changes in different people at different levels coming in and not having any idea about the rehabilitation programs that we run. And so it is a kind of a continuing education of individuals who are coming and going to have them see the value of the programs and the way that they need to operate.   Carol: Yeah, I appreciate that. So let's look a little bit at kind of leveraging both of you like this leveraging your data. And we're kind of skipping around a little bit here. But how do you guys like to leverage data to inform your financial and programmatic decisions? Now remember we've got a lot of new directors. We have listeners out there that are they don't know we I get this question all the time. You know, we talk about data informed decision making. People are like, yeah, we talk about it, but what does that mean? And how do you really do it in practicality? So Kristen, what would you say do you have like an example or how do you like to best leverage data when you're looking at making decisions, whether programmatically or financially?   Kristen: Just because I have a little bit more programmatic data that I have access to and ability to manipulate, we really look at that in terms of, you know, when we're setting our annual strategic goals, what is our five year goal? Take a look at what have the last three years look like. You know what the percentage of increase or decrease is? How are we adjusting those things? Use the data to understand where are the gaps, what's not working, and something we expected the needle to move and it didn't. What's not working in that process. And so you know, what lever do we pull to say this is going to be quote unquote a countermeasure for that thing, and then measure that data over the next three, six months. And if there's a change, then we can kind of understand then did that work or didn't it work? I think far too often in our workforce we say, well, this is a problem, but we don't really have any data around it. Should we gather a ton of data for the program to being able to use that data to help inform what decisions or what changes to processes should we be making and how should we make those. And then we can track it to see did it make a difference or what difference did it make? And is it something we should replicate? Is it something we should pull back. So I really like to use our data from our program, you know, participant program data to inform our strategy on what we're going to be doing in the next 1 to 5 years.   Carol: I know before you have presented at CSAVR and showed like you had some really cool ways you were able to look at data and you did a lot of it by your region so you could start narrowing in, because you can have this tendency to go, oh, you look at the data broadly and then you're like, oh, we must have this problem everywhere. Well, you realized you had regions, you know, in your state you're like, well, why am I like spanking everybody? What we write, we need to focus over here.   Kristen: Yeah, we have those metrics. And it's a metric per counselor, per rehab tech, per purchasing specialist. That unit of counselors rolls up to the supervisor. The supervisor rolls up to the program manager. So I can drill down from a state level perspective to a region perspective. Is it a supervisor office problem? Is it a person problem? And that has really helped us understand. Also, where do we need to direct the energies and efforts in terms of making changes.   Carol: Yeah, I really like that. That was really good stuff. How about you, Natasha? What are you doing with leveraging data? Because I know that's in your wheelhouse, too.   Natasha: We actually hired within, like, the last year or so, a data analyst who is skilled in data visualization and being able to take a bunch of raw numbers and tell a story. And we have been working with her to develop not only the programmatic data, which we now have a ton of that we can look at, but also our fiscal forecasting and what's happening on a budgetary level. It is because of those reports which I am getting weekly, monthly and quarterly reports, depending on the nature that we were able to suddenly see this huge, unexpected spike in case services authorizations. Within just a month of it happening, we were able to drill in. What exactly is going on? What are the bucket items that are the red flags we were able to look at by staff member by region, and we found that our interpreters have gone up over 300%, which then led us down to, okay, what's going on with that? What's the story behind the data? We also are every week meeting as a fiscal team. So the three fiscal staff that I have and myself, we meet every single week. I am intimately involved in our federal reporting. I look at every single report that they put together before we submit our 17. We walk through it. I know where we're at with match. I know where we're at with maintenance of effort. I know exactly where our 15% set aside is, and I can tell you that every single month how we're doing and what issues we're going to be facing. And that's because we have the data. If a director never looks at data and doesn't know what's happening in their programs, they're not going to be able to spot issues. You have to know whether you're doing good or you're not doing good. You need to be able to catch those things.   Carol: Yeah. And unfortunately, you have many colleagues across the country. And I will come in and they're being told by like the DSA fiscal staff, hey, don't worry about it. We got it. And so there have been directors of programs of 150 plus million dollars, have never seen a budget report. Zero idea. So literally anything they want to do. Hey, can we send a staff to training? They're asking this group of fiscal people sitting over here because they don't even know what's in the budget. It is the most insane thing I've ever seen. So you really hit the nail on the head. Like, you have to have access and it is required in the law, in the act, in setting up the agency org structure, you have the sole responsibility over the allocation and expenditure of your funds. And how can you have that sole responsibility and not have any data that goes with it? So I preach. Natasha: I will say, data is if you have a legislative ask and you are requesting more funding, the stories are important, but they also want to see the data behind it.   Carol: 100%. And it can't be data that's changing by the day. Oops, we forgot this because I've seen people get burned on that as well. And then the legislators are going, okay, well, this data now is suspect, and I think they need a legislative audit report and review because what are they doing over there?   Kristen: From a data reporting perspective, like having historical data to the same reports they pull, they cannot keep changing the reports that you're changing the methodology of that. That was a lesson learned for us is we had to understand what data we were pulling, how were we calculating the numbers we were calculating. And now we have data since 2018, and we can tell when we've made any changes. And so then we can see what are our trends. What does that look like. How can we use that to help us predict in the future. So that was a lesson learned for me. We came in and it wasn't much in terms of data. We built some reports and then it was like, oh, but now we need to kind of be able to track, oh, well, this thing happened. And that's why maybe that spiked or dipped or we did this thing and here's the change we saw. So we were able to speak to that year over year as well.   Carol: Well super cool. So what advice would you guys have for other leaders out there? All the lessons you all have learned. We can try to read the tea leaves, like where is VR heading in the next few years? But what do you all think? Like what do you think where's VR going? And what advice would you have for other leaders? And Kristen, I'll go to you.   Kristen: I just think remain committed to the mission and the purpose of the programs that we have. we're here to serve individuals with disabilities. We'd keep that at the forefront. And, you know, I heard Natasha say to you, the mission is on the wall, right? We all have our missions. We all have our visions. Just don't let that get buried in all of the craziness that is happening and continue to be persistent. Carol mentioned the persistence. I think that is key. You don't let it drag you down. Don't let it burn you out. Just be persistent and know that all of the work that you're doing is for a good reason, good outcomes.   Carol: Good stuff. Natasha, I'm going to give you the last word.   Natasha: Don't get comfortable with how things are going right now. Speaking to what Kristen said earlier? Things will change, and probably for reasons completely outside of your control. And also remember that easy decisions aren't always the best decisions, and the best decisions aren't always the popular ones.   Carol: Well said. Very true. Well, I appreciate you both. Oh my gosh, I'm so excited to see what you all have done. You're two of my favorite directors. Don't tell the, don't tell the other directors that are listening.   Natasha: Yeah, cut that out, Jeff. Don't have that in there.   Carol: Thanks for joining me today. Sure appreciate it.   Kristen: Thank you.   Natasha: Bye.   {Music} Outro Voice: Conversations powered by VR, one manager at a time, one minute at a time, brought to you by the VR TAC for Quality Management. Catch all of our podcast episodes by subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening!

Larry Ketchersid, CEO of Media Sourcery discusses their partnership with Everpoint Services to improve the recycling process for blades and solar panels, proving the circular economy. Their method uses innovative blockchain technology to create verifiable proof of proper recycling. By implementing this tracking method, asset owners can be certain their blades have been properly disposed of. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! The recycling crisis for wind turbine blades and solar panels demands better solutions as these materials pile up without proper processing and documentation. This week we speak with Larry Ketchersid, CEO of Media Sorcery, who's partnered with Everpoint Services to tackle renewable waste recycling. Their innovative blockchain technology creates verifiable proof that your decommissioned assets actually reach proper recycling facilities, not abandoned in fields or landfills. Stay tuned. Allen Hall: Alright, Larry, welcome to the program. Thank you for having me. So we met yesterday with Everpoint Services who is doing a quite a bit of business at the minute doing solar panel recycling and wind turbine blade recycling. Correct. And we've talked about it on the podcast more recently about the efforts. To make sure that what leaves the facility is actually [00:01:00] recycled. There is a industry problem where blades leave a site and they get stacked up in some farm somewhere or some disposal site and never get chewed up or ground up and, and recycled properly. And it's a black eye on the industry, right? Joel Saxum: Yeah. You get, uh, I mean, we. The wind industry has detractors. We already know this. Right? And then when you have something that's like that, especially wind turbine blades, 'cause they're big, uh, and it's very visible, the problem then exacerbates itself. Right? I mean it, like you said, black eye on the industry. But even with that happening, we still haven't gotten all the way to solving that problem that's, that's existing there. But you guys are working on it. Larry Ketchersid: We are. We are. We, we have a solution that we cut our teeth on with, uh, tracking things like COVID-19 test kits. Okay. Right. So we, we started proof of authenticity when, uh, we were in the healthcare business. And during Covid we had a partner that became an importer of, uh, COVID kits from Korea. And what [00:02:00] people didn't realize is if you leave the Covid kits out of the freezer, the efficacy goes down. So we had a automated workflow system that we turned into a proof of authenticity for. Tracking Covid kits from the manufacturer. So we put little, I mean this was four or five years ago during the pandemic, we had these chemical barcodes that were temperature sensitive, and we put 'em on the, on the covid kits. So, and, and you had to scan 'em. So they weren't really interactive sensors, but from point A to point B, you could scan 'em. Did the, the temperature go above a certain amount for a certain period of time, which made 'em bad, yes or no? And then we just track 'em all the way through. So it, it's very. Similar to what we're trying to do with tracking, recycling. I mean, we use this solution to track, uh, all sorts of things, but recycling is a really obvious use case for it. So what we try to do is we, we, we take an asset. So an asset can be a solar panel, it can be a pallet of solar panels, it can [00:03:00] be a blade, it can be a tractor trailer, full of blades, whatever the customer wants. And we take as much of the evidence about an event and the life of that ...

Welcome to this special episode of the China Compass Podcast, #28 in the weekly “Prison Pulpit” series! I'm your China travel guide, Missionary Ben. You can follow me on X (@chinaadventures) where I post daily reminders to pray for China (http://PrayforChina.us). To learn more about our various ministry endeavors and to get any of the missionary biographies I’ve published, visit www.PrayGiveGo.us! First, I want to remind everyone why I started this second weekly podcast within China Compass. I want to encourage people to pray for Pastor Wang Yi (and others like him, as Hebrews 13:3 teaches us) by sharing from his own words and sermons. We’ve also looked at sermons from Richard Wurmbrand. But today I’m taking a break from Richard Wurmbrand’s Sermons in Solitary Confinement, to talk about what happened to me exactly 7 years ago, when I was arrested and interrogated in China. Specifically, after recounting my memories for a bit, I want to share some thoughts on how to pray for others who may someday find themselves in a similar situation. For instance, if you know someone is going to be undergoing intense questioning or interrogations related to their testimony or ministry, here are some specific things (from one who has been in that very situation) to pray for: Pray for clarity of mind (and wisdom) Pray for boldness (against fear and worry) Pray for family (who may not know what is going on) Get the book and other special content @ UNBEATEN.VIP! Follow China CompassFollow or subscribe to China Compass wherever you are listening. You can also email any questions or comments to contact @ PrayforChina . us or send me a DM on X: @chinaadventures. Hebrews 13:3

A bill that would clarify when Texas physicians can legally perform an abortion to save a mother's life unanimously passed the state Senate on Tuesday. Senate Bill 31, also known as the Life of the Mother Act, would allow doctors to intervene and provide abortion care to pregnant women who are experiencing medical emergencies. In other news, Texas health officials reported 17 new measles cases on Tuesday, bringing the total confirmed cases since late January to 663. The state's public health department estimates that fewer than 10 of the confirmed cases — about 1% — are “actively infectious.”; one Monday last fall, only about half of Cleburne students showed up to class. The reason for such low attendance? Families were fearful after threats of violence against Cleburne ISD campuses had zoomed across Snapchat in the days before. Similar scares have become common, a trend that's strained police resources, led to the arrests of young children and interrupted students' focus in the classroom; and H-E-B is ready to open its first namesake store in North Texas. The company will officially launch on May 14 in Melissa at 6 a.m. The San Antonio grocer's new store is at 1230 Central Expressway, near the intersection of U.S. Highway 75 and State Highway 121. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Magic lose in TD Garden, 120-89. Series over. Adam Silver called Tony Brothers at halftime of this Game 5 with the Magic up 2 in Boston. Brothers tags 3 questionable fouls on Paolo Banchero, gets him out with 5 fouls, and the Celtics avalanche was on from there. Orlando loses this series 4-1. We go another year without a series win and no road playoff game victory. Similar offensive story, not a lot of help for Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner. All of that and more! #LetsGoMagic Warning: Adult Language

Welcome to this special episode of the China Compass Podcast, #28 in the weekly “Prison Pulpit” series! I'm your China travel guide, Missionary Ben. You can follow me on X (@chinaadventures) where I post daily reminders to pray for China (http://PrayforChina.us). To learn more about our various ministry endeavors and to get any of the missionary biographies I’ve published, visit www.PrayGiveGo.us! First, I want to remind everyone why I started this second weekly podcast within China Compass. I want to encourage people to pray for Pastor Wang Yi (and others like him, as Hebrews 13:3 teaches us) by sharing from his own words and sermons. We’ve also looked at sermons from Richard Wurmbrand. But today I’m taking a break from Richard Wurmbrand’s Sermons in Solitary Confinement, to talk about what happened to me exactly 7 years ago, when I was arrested and interrogated in China. Specifically, after recounting my memories for a bit, I want to share some thoughts on how to pray for others who may someday find themselves in a similar situation. For instance, if you know someone is going to be undergoing intense questioning or interrogations related to their testimony or ministry, here are some specific things (from one who has been in that very situation) to pray for: Pray for clarity of mind (and wisdom) Pray for boldness (against fear and worry) Pray for family (who may not know what is going on) Get the book and other special content @ UNBEATEN.VIP! Follow China CompassFollow or subscribe to China Compass wherever you are listening. You can also email any questions or comments to contact @ PrayforChina . us or send me a DM on X: @chinaadventures. Hebrews 13:3

A More Civilized Age will not be covering Andor Season 2 as planned, due the the ongoing boycott of Disney Plus by the BDS Movement. This is a surprise to us, as it is likely to you and some explanation is required. Last year, the BDS movement targeted Disney Plus for boycott on the grounds that it has cast Israeli actors in its films who have been cultural ambassadors for Israel and do not support the Palestinian cause for liberation or justice. Additionally, Marvel films have made use of characters who have a history in the comics of being connected to positive depictions of Israel and its intelligence service, the Mossad. We were not aware of this boycott when it was declared, and we were not aware of it when we covered Skeleton Crew earlier this year. We are aware of it now, however, and in becoming aware of it, we had to make an affirmative choice that our ignorance had permitted us to avoid. We were not agreed as to what that choice should be. However, what was clear was that if we went ahead with covering Andor Season 2 while this boycott was in place, we would be arriving at an unacceptable outcome. It was either demand members be willing to compromise their own values and do work they did not feel they could perform in good conscience, or it was to go ahead with a partial panel until we were again able to cover something that was not covered by a BDS boycott. This has been a challenging moment for us. We are all firmly committed to the cause of Palestinian liberation and the end of the ongoing genocide perpetrated by Israel under the pretext of waging a war in response to the October 7, 2023 attacks. However, we have differences of opinion and standards of personal and professional obligations when it comes to how we respond to the Boycott, Divest, and Sanction movement and all its calls for action. Those differences were intensified by the compressed time-frame in which we had to have this discussion. We include these details because it is important to acknowledge that on this point there is real disagreement among us which prevents us from making a more straightforward statement. Similar disagreements will certainly arise in the future, and our views will also continue to evolve and change. However, it's also important to note that we can disagree pretty strongly and continue to work together to make AMCA as good as it can be, a show that every member can participate and take pride in. But we do have news on what we'll be covering next. Beginning in May, we'll be kicking off our coverage of Knights of the Old Republic II. We'll have more info on how we'll be covering that game, what mods (if any) we end up using, and more soon. We thank you so much for your patience. This has been as much of a surprise for us as it is for you, but we're going to focus on making the best possible show we can as we continue to move through the Star Wars catalog. Support the show by going to Patreon.com/civilized! Show Notes Guide To BDS Boycott & Pressure Corporate Priority Targeting Decolonize Palestine, a collection of resources for organizers and anyone who wants to learn more about Palestine Hosted by Rob Zacny (@RobZacny) Featuring Alicia Acampora (@ali_west), Austin Walker (@austin_walker), and Natalie Watson (@nataliewatson) Produced by Austin Walker Music by Jack de Quidt (@notquitereal) Cover art by Xeecee (@xeeceevevo)

This community-centered episode features real stories from five OPC teachers who integrate Pilates into their lives while managing careers, parenting, and personal challenges. Lesley Logan is joined by Mindi Westfall, Rachel Piper, Christine Kam-Lynch, Megan Lauman, and Yasmin Scholten to share how Pilates helped them reclaim time, build strength, and stay grounded. Their journeys reveal just how accessible and empowering consistent movement can be. If you have any questions about this episode or want to get some of the resources we mentioned, head over to LesleyLogan.co/podcast. If you have any comments or questions about the Be It pod shoot us a message at beit@lesleylogan.co.And as always, if you're enjoying the show please share it with someone who you think would enjoy it as well. It is your continued support that will help us continue to help others. Thank you so much! Never miss another show by subscribing at LesleyLogan.co/subscribe.In this episode you will learn about:Why OPC was built to be inclusive and community-driven.How each teacher found Pilates and what made them stick with it.The unexpected ways Pilates supports parenting and mental health. Why you don't need a full hour or fancy gear to build your strength.How the OPC teachers show up as both students and leaders.Episode References/Links:Meet the OPC Teachers - https://onlinepilatesclasses.com/teachersOPC on Instagram - https://instagram.com/opc.pilatesMindi Westfall - https://instagram.com/bendymindipilatesRachel Piper - https://instagram.com/size_diverse_pilatesChristine Kam-Lynch - https://instagram.com/pilates.boundMegan Lauman - https://instagram.com/megans_pilatesYasmin Scholten - https://instagram.com/purapilates_yasminGuest Bio:This powerhouse panel of Pilates teachers—Christine Kam-Lynch, Megan Lauman, Mindi Westfall, Rachel Piper, and Yasmin Scholten—brings a vibrant mix of passion, precision, and personality to the practice. Christine, a third-generation teacher and tech program manager, fuses straight-shooting cues with contagious joy. Megan blends classical roots with modern training to inspire confidence and consistency in movement. Mindi draws from her sports and injury recovery background to help others find relief and strength through Pilates. Rachel, founder of Size Diverse Pilates, champions inclusivity and creates welcoming spaces for every body, especially those who've felt unseen. Yasmin, a former economist turned studio owner in Germany, brings a global perspective and an uplifting spirit to her classes. Collectively, they represent the evolving heart of Pilates—meeting people where they are and helping them move with purpose, pride, and playfulness. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure and give us a five star rating and leave us a review on iTunes, Podcast Addict, Podchaser or Castbox. https://lovethepodcast.com/BITYSIDEALS! DEALS! DEALS! DEALS! https://onlinepilatesclasses.com/memberships/perks/#equipmentCheck out all our Preferred Vendors & Special Deals from Clair Sparrow, Sensate, Lyfefuel BeeKeeper's Naturals, Sauna Space, HigherDose, AG1 and ToeSox https://onlinepilatesclasses.com/memberships/perks/#equipmentBe in the know with all the workshops at OPC https://workshops.onlinepilatesclasses.com/lp-workshop-waitlistBe It Till You See It Podcast Survey https://pod.lesleylogan.co/be-it-podcasts-surveyBe a part of Lesley's Pilates Mentorship https://lesleylogan.co/elevate/FREE Ditching Busy Webinar https://ditchingbusy.com/ Resources:·        Watch the Be It Till You See It podcast on YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq08HES7xLMvVa3Fy5DR8-g·        Lesley Logan website https://lesleylogan.co/·        Be It Till You See It Podcast https://lesleylogan.co/podcast/·        Online Pilates Classes by Lesley Logan https://onlinepilatesclasses.com/·        Online Pilates Classes by Lesley Logan on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjogqXLnfyhS5VlU4rdzlnQ·        Profitable Pilates https://profitablepilates.com/about/ Follow Us on Social Media:·        Instagram https://www.instagram.com/lesley.logan/·        The Be It Till You See It Podcast YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq08HES7xLMvVa3Fy5DR8-g·        Facebook https://www.facebook.com/llogan.pilates·        LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/lesley-logan/·        The OPC YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@OnlinePilatesClasses Episode Transcript:Megan Lauman 0:00  I love how inclusive it is. What I mean by inclusive is we're not expecting everybody's body to do the same thing. We're just honest, real and inclusive. It's inviting for everybody.Lesley Logan 0:10  Welcome to the Be It Till You See It podcast where we talk about taking messy action, knowing that perfect is boring. I'm Lesley Logan, Pilates instructor and fitness business coach. I've trained thousands of people around the world and the number one thing I see stopping people from achieving anything is self-doubt. My friends, action brings clarity and it's the antidote to fear. Each week, my guest will bring bold, executable, intrinsic and targeted steps that you can use to put yourself first and Be It Till You See It. It's a practice, not a perfect. Let's get started.Lesley Logan 0:53  Hey, Be It babe. You know, you might not know this. You probably hear about OPC all the time, but you probably have never like heard the people who are part of OPC, and so I wanted to take some time to share some of the OPC teachers with you. One, it's an excuse for all of us to get together. And two, more importantly, I think it's really important for us all to hear people who are like us and the journey that they went on. You probably know how important Pilates is to me. It really is how I be it till I see it every single day, like, the time that I am doing in my Pilates practice is how I can tell where I am in my life and how I'm feeling about myself and what's going on. And when I created OPC, it was so you could too. Just so we're on the same page, onlinepilatesclasses.com equals OPC. You'll hear different terms in this interview with the different teachers, and one of those is FFF, Form Feedback Fridays, and that's just us giving feedback to our members. And you'll hear about the live classes that we have, and you'll hear about the accountability in the community that we have. But the goal here is, you could hear a person who's got a job like yours, or similar to yours, or a life like yours. You know, when I created OPC, it was just me, but the goal was not always just me, and as I added teachers from our community, we have something very similar, but also we're very different, whether it was height or age or body type or lifestyle, or where we live in the world, or the journey that we've come on. I could have talked to each one of these teachers for an hour on their own. So, you know, if you like this episode and you have more questions for these teachers, let me know, and I'll bring them back on. We are missing Tami. Our schedules didn't align. It's kind of hard to get seven busy women with, I don't know six different time zones together, but we'll bring Tami on for her own special episode, of course. Together, all seven of us teachers are, there's seven including me, have over 8 or something years of teaching experience. And, so know that you are in good hands, and know that we don't ever expect you to aspire to look like us in any exercise. We only want you to be you. And I couldn't think of a better group of people to talk about being it till you see it, than just these women who had a whole life before they found Pilates, and they're living these busy lives now, and they're prioritizing that. So here is several of the OPC teachers, Mindy, Rachel, Christine, Yasmin and Megan. And I really hope you enjoy this. And if you have friends who've been thinking about Pilates and wanting to try it out or have extra accessibility, I hope that they take a look at OPC. There you go. Lesley Logan 3:42  All right, Be It babe, I am, I've got a party for you. It's an actual, true party. I'm not gonna lie. And we have a lot of different voices on here. So if you're hearing a bunch of women like talk with each other, join us in your car, at your coffee shop, on your walk, just like talk out, talk out loud with us. We'd have the conversation with us. Today, I'm joined by many of the OPC teachers, not all of the OPC teachers, and we thought it'd be really fun. One, we never can get together, all of us with our time zones. And you'll hear we're missing a brilliant voice in this conversation. So I'll have to have Tami on another day, but you'll hear the voices of these different teachers. And so we'll start off. I'm just gonna call people out for their introductions, and they're like freaking out right now, but okay, I'll tell you all who's here. We have Mindi Westfall. We have Yasmin Scholten. We have Rachel Piper. We have Megan Lauman. We have Christine Kam-Lynch and Tami-Adrian is in our hearts and our souls always. These are the amazing OPC teachers. Christine, I'm gonna call on you first. I'm so sorry, but you're, you are probably really good with a PowerPoint and so you probably have a good way of introducing yourself. Can you tell everyone a little bit about who you are, what you rock at, how did you get into Pilates?Christine Kam-Lynch 4:52  Yeah, Hi, I'm Christine Kam-Lynch, and teaching Pilates is actually a second job for me. Surprise, surprise. I am actually a technology program manager working in IT space and security. So really, techy nerd in some ways, or at least working with a lot of people that I work, I bring together. Sorry, LL, I already forgot your question.Lesley Logan 5:15  Just how you got into Pilates, but I love that you, what I'm so excited about, you guys is, if you hear her, she's like a total tech nerd, like one of the big ones. And I also say her last name wrong all the time, it's Kam-Lynch, not Cam-Lynch. So, noted. Okay, how did you get into Pilates, though? Also, I just want to say, if you're not watching the YouTube video of this, Christina is one of our fun size teachers. So I think that's important to bring up because.Christine Kam-Lynch 5:20  I'm standing right now.Lesley Logan 5:43  No, you're not. No, she's not. But maybe, how tall are you and how did you get into Pilates? Christine Kam-Lynch 5:50  I am five feet, and I practiced Pilates to stay at five feet. How did I get into Pilates? You know, when I moved to California from the East Coast, I saw a lot of people doing things, and I don't think you really see that on the East Coast. I think we're, like, all bundled up a lot because it's cold half a year that I don't think I paid attention. And so moving out here, I tried, like, everything, a lot of people do yoga out here and Pilates is just one of those looking into a studio space, like, what are all those toys in there? Like, I want to play on this playground. That's how I discovered it. And there's something about being on the apparatuses that makes me feel connected inside that I would hear words, but I don't understand the words. I'm like, okay, maybe one of these days it'll make sense and something will click. Well, the click happened on the apparatuses. And so that was my journey from like, one day a week to two days a week to three days a week to four days a week. And then my husband was like, oh my God, what is happening? I'm like, all the good things. All the good things has happened. Fast forward, I don't know, maybe 10 years later, the program was set up in a way that I could do teaching. The first part was mat and I finished thinking, I'll just teach mat, because that's about like all I can wrap my head around. And what's funny is that all of my students, my guinea pigs, who all helped me, had asked me, what's that over there in the studio? When do we get to go there? And I'm like, oh, crap, I didn't think that far ahead. I guess, I guess I need to continue the training program and so I did.Lesley Logan 6:14  I love that that's so cool. I love that their curiosity helped you go do more things because you're so good at what you do. We're gonna talk more about you, for sure. But I want to go to the other spectrum. And I can't decide if it's Mindi or Rachel. So Mindi's hair is taller than Rachel's so it will be Mindi first and then Rachel, as far as height goes on our teaching team. Mindi tell everyone who you are and what brought you into Pilates? Mindi Westfall 8:12  Yes, so I'm Mindi Westfall, and if you're out in Instagram world, I'm Bendy Mindi Pilates. So that actually tells a little bit about my Pilates journey, because I am hyper mobile and super bendy. So Pilates has helped me find my strength and my flexibility. But I actually started, oh gosh, I got on my first reformer in like 2005 because my mom was doing Pilates after she retired from teaching PE and she called me and was like, you have to try this. And I was like, well, at the time, I was living in Oregon, working at Nike, and Nike has state of the art facilities, and of course, they had a Pilates studio. So I went in and was like, alright, how do I get on one of those? Christine was like, what's that? You know. So took a couple classes there, and I was like, this is amazing. So after my Nike journey, I went back home to the St Louis area and went to the same studio my mom was going to and just really fell in love all over again. And at the time, I had some back issues, a bulging disc, and so I went through and did Pilates and tried to fix it, and unfortunately, it was only fixable with surgery. So I did a micro dissectomy and fixed the disc, and my orthopedic surgeon went to the same Pilates studio, and so he was like, okay, so you just need to go to Mary and continue your Pilates, and you'll be good to go. And I literally was out of pain and back into strengthening pretty quickly. And so that was just the journey of why Pilates was good for my body. I'm a former athlete. I'm 5'11" so I played volleyball in college. And wear and tear on my body, I really wish I would have had Pilates when I was playing, because I think it would have helped, and maybe I wouldn't have had so many things happening. But from there, I just kept doing Pilates, and then in 2019 I got my certification. So probably 2018 I'm trying to do mat in my head. But for my 40th birthday, my parents bought me Teacher Training Program. Lesley Logan 10:17  What a cool gift. Those are great. But we love your parents anyways, but those are so great. And I agree, like, I think if I got to take a stab at my running career after Pilates, and I got, not only I got five more years out of that career, I actually won races, which I never did pre-Pilates, pre-retirement. And so I thought it was pretty cool that, like, I could come out of retirement and be better than I was. So I do credit. I think everyone should do it if they're doing sports. Okay, so, Rachel Piper, is Mindi taller than you? Are you the same height? What are we?Rachel Piper 10:46  She's taller than I am. I'm 5'9".Lesley Logan 10:51  Oh, we're the same height. You feel taller to me. Okay, well, you feel taller to me. Anyways. Rachel Piper 10:57  Well, I have a presence. Lesley Logan 10:58  That's so true. It's so true. Rachel, how did you get into Pilates? Because you're like Christine, you live a whole other life during the daytime. Rachel Piper 11:07  Yeah, I feel like we, there are so many similarities between all of us. So I'm in biotech, that's my day job, and I was also a three sport athlete in high school and in college, and I'm also hyper mobile, but I didn't actually know that until about two years ago. And that's kind of a big thing for me. I went looking for yoga because my kiddo was about six years old and I was having trouble getting up off the floor. My knees hurt. Everyone I talked to said you're probably going to need new knees by the time you're 40. And let me tell you, with Pilates, now 46, and I do not need new knees. Okay, like that fixed me. But it's that consistency around Pilates that really, really helps. And like I said, it wasn't until maybe 18 months or two years ago that I actually realized that I was hyper mobile, and when I went in, they gave me a list of things like, Oh, this is what you can do for this. And you're also already doing it, so you're already sort of been fixing yourself for all these years, which I think is just a great testament to the entire Pilates method, yeah, but my journey was, I was a complete and total mat rat when I first started Pilates. Lesley Logan 12:25  Yes, but we should all take up space for the mat rats, because now no one wants to be a mat rat. Rachel Piper 12:30  I honestly don't get it, and teaching people how to teach mat is like, one of my favorite things to do. Like, honestly, I'm like, everyone should be on the mat. There are all of these opportunities for props. I know we'll talk about that later, but I was a mat rat. I did the teacher training, and I was like, I think maybe I'm just going to do this for myself, because I'm a nerd, you know, I'm in biotech. Pilates nerd as well. So I think I'm just going to do the mat teacher training and just for me, so that I understand what the heck has been going on and how this has changed my body. And then the next thing I know, I have a Reformer Tower, a Chair, like all the things, and I've made it through training. Lesley Logan 13:11  There's like, the addiction is real, and also, like, totally fine, because some people, they have other, they're like knitters, or they're into Beanie Babies or whatever, right? And we're like, no, I'm just gonna buy a piece of equipment that will last my lifetime, you know, it's a great investment. Christine Kam-Lynch 13:27  And beyond. Lesley Logan 13:28  And beyond, and beyond. It will be here. Right, right. You're totally right, Christine, because one of my girlfriends, unfortunately, her mentor passed, and all of that equipment is now living on 40 years later with other people. So there it is. Okay, more to chat with Rachel, but of course, we're gonna go to Megan, and then we'll go international to Yasmeen. So Megan, tell us everything about you.Megan Lauman 13:48  Everything? Lesley Logan 13:49  No, at least just your Pilates journey. Megan Lauman 13:51  Okay, well, I'm Megan, and I'm in the middle of the United States, in St Louis. I'm a mother of four. And so for me, it was looking for the thing that gives me some time for me so I could be the best mom I could be. And that became running like the minute my first was born. So I've been a runner for 18 years now, and so I ran and ran and ran, and that was like the time that I could breathe. And then suddenly my hips were hurting and my knees were hurting, and I was seeing the chiropractor, and I was seeing a physical therapist, and whatever I could do to feel well. And then I stumbled upon a YouTube video of mat Pilates, and also became a mat rat. So I would, became obsessed with mat, and I was like, there's no reason to go to physical therapy. I'm doing the same things here on the mat that they were having me do, only I loved it, and I felt so good. And so that became another moment for me. So added Pilates to that practice, and I did mat practice for about five years before I even knew that anything else existed. So just mat, loved i, still do, it's my favorite. Yeah. And then, yes, I did that for about five years before I looked into what else there was, and then became a Pilates instructor from there. And now my front room of the house is a Pilates studio, and yes, collect all the things. That's what we do.Lesley Logan 15:19  Sounds about right. Sounds about, you know, my living room and guest bedroom and office has Pilates equipment in now so, you know. All right, we gotta go all the way across the pond, all the way into Germany to talk to Yasmin. Yasmin, tell us who you are.Yasmin Scholten 15:35  Yeah. Hi, I'm Yasmin, and I'm from Germany. This is in Europe, center of Europe, and that's the country Joe Pilates is coming from originally, so, yeah, so, but it's not the country the Pilates is very famous, or was very famous. So I started with 18, with fitness. So I was a group fitness instructor with 18. So this was my teaching beginning, and I financed my Tourism Management study with teaching a lot.Lesley Logan 16:11  You were already in fitness, you were just teaching other fitness, and then you're like, I'm gonna go to school. Yasmin Scholten 16:17  Pilates was not really famous. I teach step aerobics, everything, shaping classes, whatever. Teached everything. And I had wonderful. Lesley Logan 16:28  Yasmin, do you know how to say left, but go right? Do you have that skill? Yasmin Scholten 16:32  Oh, I, yeah, it took a long time to learn, but yeah, I got it one day. Lesley Logan 16:39  That impresses me so much. Yasmin Scholten 16:41  Also with the music, rhythm and the music. So count for four. It took a time, but yeah, I got it. I still love to dance. So I also have this dance aerobic instructor who also introduced me to Pilates. She was also a Pilates instructor, and I asked her what do you think is the future of fitness? And she told me, a small Pilates studio with equipment. She told me I was, I don't know, 20, so it's a long time ago. So I finished my studies, and yeah, and then I tried Pilates because I had a lot of tension in neck and back because of sitting too much in my office job a lot, and I went to my first Pilates class there. I wasn't teaching anymore anything about fitness or anything else, but I went to my first class, and I really felt so good after this mat class, and I had a wonderful teacher there. And, yeah, she recommended me one day. Why not doing a training program? And she also recommended me doing I didn't know anything about classical or contemporary. I didn't know anything about it. I just loved the mat class, and she bought a Reformer one day, and I tried this, and I was totally, I don't know, I fell in love with equipment too, so just a Reformer, but it was wonderful. And then, yeah, I did the training program, and then I started to teach in her studio together with my full time job, yeah, that was hard, but it was so fun teaching. I loved it, really. And then I decided to move to my hometown, so it's a little small town near Munich, and I opened my home studio there, and I quit my job. It was really a good paid job, but I thought, yeah, that's what I want to do. And yeah, everybody told me, oh no, you are crazy. You are crazy. It's a small town. Nobody knows anything about Pilates. Lesley Logan 18:54  But I think that's sometimes the best thing, because then you get to be the one, yeah.Yasmin Scholten 18:58  And I'm still the only one in surrounding so there are no other Pilates studios. So I'm really lucky. The next one is in Munich, and yeah, they are coming and loving the equipment. So I really love the equipment too, but I'm also a mat rat. I don't know this one. Mat rat, I love it.Lesley Logan 19:18  I know I feel like we need to rename the animal, though, you guys, I don't think anybody really, I mean, you know, maybe, the mat rat, or maybe we're just giving rats a better name. I too, like, I only knew the mat for years. I thought the equipment was weird. I was like, who needs to be on that? The mat is so good. Why would we do that? It's also, like, I don't have the money. So I was like, that's so expensive. Why would anyone do that when you could just do the mat work? And then when I moved to L.A., the woman kept putting me on the Reformer, and I did long stretch for the first time, and thought I was gonna fly off the Reformer. I thought I was just gonna get shot up like a cannon. I was like, I don't like this at all. I don't feel safe. I don't think this is good. So, and it took me a really long time to, like, get on board with the equipment. Lesley Logan 20:01  Okay. So we have Mindy, Megan, myself, and Tami, and Yasmin, full time Pilates teachers, and then Rachel and Christine, you guys save the world. And then you teach Pilates on the side. Is that what's going on? Okay. And then, yeah, I like that. I mean, Christine's doing securities and tech, and you're doing biotech. So to me those are the two things that save the world right now. And then we have Yasmin, Rachel, Megan and Tami who've got the kiddos. I think Megan wins with four, because Yasmin, you have two? Yasmin Scholten 20:34  Two, yeah, two boys. Lesley Logan 20:36  Yeah. And then Rachel and Tami each have one, unless I've forgotten a child. Okay, so I just want to say that, because I know people are listening, and it's important to put in context, like, every single one of these people got into Pilates for something that they needed, and they got joy out of it, and also it made them a better person around the people that they love and care about. I mean, Christine's husband was wondering where all this stuff was coming from, but I think he's on board now. Lesley Logan 21:01  Okay, so I want to take a few of you, and you guys can chime in if I don't call you out. But like, what got you wanting to even look at OPC? Because obviously we all fell in love with in-person Pilates. And I think there's a lot of people, like, I just had someone here at the house. I was just teaching in-person. They were visiting from the Ukraine, and they're like, so you teach people on the computer, like, how do you know if they're doing it right? And I was like, well, that's kind of my job to know if you're doing it right. But I can understand that question, you know, if you don't experience online, so I'll go with Mindi, Christine and Rachel on this one. How did you kind of like stumble upon OPC? And what did you think about doing Pilates online?Mindi Westfall 21:37  I'm not the mat rat. I didn't know much about the mat until I started doing my training and then following people on Instagram, following Lesley, and she was doing an in-person class in Denver, and I was like, I'm gonna go to that. Lesley Logan 21:53  Oh, yeah, no, I bug, I like slid into your DMS. Okay, so this is how do you all wanna know how many I met? She commented on something, and it was during the time of the first ever OPC Pop Up Tour, and we were trying to sell out locations. And so I was in the habit of every comment I got I literally stalked them and looked up where they're from, and it said Denver. And so I DMed her, I said, hey, I'm teaching a class in Denver, and you should come. You guys, it was like across town on a Monday night, and she fucking did it. So that's how we met. And it was a mat class, so she had to do mat. Mindi Westfall 22:22  So at that point, I was like, okay, I need this in my life. And you guys were talking about OPC, and I was like, oh, this would be great, because I can have someone else teach me, and I had been following you and all of that. So OPC was just a way for me to get my own workout in while teaching and trying to figure this out. And I mean, I was teaching a lot in the beginning, because that's what we do. And then I was like, okay, I need this time for myself. Plus I just wanted more of your knowledge, because I didn't know a lot at that point. So the mat was really the part that I wanted the access to on OPC, because I didn't have access to that where I was, so. Lesley Logan 23:07  A lot of people don't teach mat. And so the mat at OPC is like a great supplement if you're going to a studio, yeah. Mindi Westfall 23:12  Absolutely, yup. Lesley Logan 23:14  All right, Christine, you're up. How did, how did we, like, we knew each other, though? How do we find each other?Christine Kam-Lynch 23:20  This is gonna sound really odd. Lesley Logan 23:22  How did you get into my life?Christine Kam-Lynch 23:23  I know. So, I wasn't on social media. I'm barely on it now, but my dog is on social media, and somehow you got into his feed through Profitable Pilates. Lesley Logan 23:41  Oh, it wasn't even an ad, by the way. We weren't even paying for ads. No, this is like straight up true algorithm making sure we met, yes. Christine Kam-Lynch 23:47  Yes, which timed well, because I was having my home studio at the time, and I had three questions, and I'm like, where do I go for these questions? And your poster, I don't know, I don't think reels were big back then, that's how old I am, but it was a post, and I was like, oh, she could have my answers for me. And so I slid into your DMs, because I remember asking a friend, like, how do I contact her? And she's like, oh, you DM her. And I'm like, what? So she showed me. And I was like, oh, great, thank you. And so, yeah, I wrote to you, and so you gave OPC as part of our Profitable Pilates agency membership. Lesley Logan 24:39  Oh, so we just forced you into it. Christine Kam-Lynch 24:41  Yes, basically. I was like, this is free? Okay, I would give it a try. And I was like, oh, I love this.Lesley Logan 24:49  I love it. That's so funny. We kind of forced you in, you know what? Sometimes that's the best time. All right, Rachel, how did you find OPC?Rachel Piper 24:57  I feel like it was really, really odd, if I remember correctly. There was someone on Instagram that I was supporting because she made size inclusive clothing with Pilates. Her name's Maria, and she was hosting, like an OPC leader, something. Lesley Logan 25:12  Yeah, oh, okay. That was. Okay, so in 2020, we had like community leaders, because everybody was at home and everyone was stuck, and so we would do pop ups, but live Zoom classes on the mat, but just for that person's people. It was city-based, but obviously not and so it was our first those were our first affiliates. And so she loved us. We love Maria. Shout out to The Movement Shop. And so you, you came to the the Minneapolis, Zoom class. Rachel Piper 25:42  Yeah, I came to the Zoom class. And I think I followed you on Instagram or whatever, but I didn't really know what was going on with Instagram, other than I was trying to support her. So I went, and afterwards, we chatted, and Brad was there, and I was like, oh, these people are fun. And you asked me, like, a whole bunch of questions. And it was, like, really interactive. And then after that, it was just like, we kept commenting on each other's posts and things like that, and the next thing I knew, you were asking me to be a teacher. And I was like, how did this even happen? You know what I mean? It was pretty interesting. But I love the classes, so I did sign up for OPC after that. But we have a ton of mat classes. We had a ton of that classes at my studio, but they were all 50 minutes long, and I was like, I just want a pinch of mat, but also because I could do it on my own, but if I do it on my own, then maybe I'll cheat a little here or there. And I love a good theme. I think we all know I love themes. I love writing descriptions for themes. Christine Kam-Lynch 26:40  Yeah, you have the best names, Rachel, you come up with the best names. Lesley Logan 26:44  At OPC, we know, it was like Katie Donnelly, and it might have been Christine who is like, when you hear OPC does anyone go, yeah, you know me. And we discovered that all of the members are kind of like elder millennial Gen Xers who just really love 90s hip hop. Then we, like, just really got into themes. And Rachel is definitely the go to because some people on the team don't really love naming things and coming up with themes. And it's like Rachel and Christine, the two of them will just come and Megan can just come up with themes. So just give them, give them to Mindi.Rachel Piper 27:14  I do. I send some of them to Mindi. I swear, still my favorite one that I ever came up with, and I still giggle out, is Hippy Ki-Yay Mat and Reformer. Yeah, they're, like, one of my favorite ones. Oh my gosh, we just need to, like, bring that back because. Lesley Logan 27:32  You should bring it back. Rachel Piper 27:33  It was an awesome theme. If anyone remembers the circle bands, we put the circle bands on our thighs, and we never took it off for class. And I was like, maybe don't use, like a heavy band, everyone.Christine Kam-Lynch 27:46  I did. I did not listen to you. I did and I regretted it. It's important.Lesley Logan 27:54  I do recall that. So Megan, I know how she won a year of OPC, if I recall our history together. I think the better question maybe is why did you stick around at OPC? Most people win things, and it's free, and they don't use it, but you used it. So what was it about OPC that made you go, this is my place, that I'm going to use this gift? Megan Lauman 28:18  Yeah, well, kind of similar to Mindi. I mean, when I originally found you was online with YouTube videos like teaching exercises, because I was a teacher in training, and I was like, how do I soak in more knowledge when I'm on a walk? How can I just learn while I'm walking or while I'm driving? I could just listen. And so that's how I found you. Loved the tutorials. And then one free year, I kind of like to go all in. Like, a lot of us Pilates people, we don't, like, we really just do it that's why we all have so much equipment, right? So, yeah, I went all in. I'm like, I'm not missing a class. I'm getting everything out of this that I could possibly get out of this.Lesley Logan 29:00  Like, the value of a year of OPC is, like, 1400 and something dollars. I'm telling you, you guys, Megan was at every live class she took every, now they're 45 minutes, and every 30 minutes, and how I got to know you is because of you asked all these questions and you participated in the community. I was like, yes, I'm so glad this person won, because you were the most deserving to win.Megan Lauman 29:21  The Form Feedback Fridays, I definitely took advantage of that, because the I was a new Pilates instructor, right? And so I'm looking at everyone, but have no one looking at me and so it was just such a huge bonus to have someone able to look at me and give some feedback.Lesley Logan 29:36  That's one of my favorite things that I wish people took advantage of more. And it's really funny, because I've had a couple people go, can I send my clients' videos in? And I'm like, no, because OPC is a safe place for your practice, and your practice the more curious you are, even if your body type is different than your clients, because all the teachers body types are so different, you're going to learn what you need to learn. And so the Form Feedback Fridays, you guys, it's really like, you send a video in if you're an OPC member, if you do an exercise, and then I can give feedback. And my goal is that we get so many of these that I have to hire the OPC teachers to help me. And so people are like, I don't want to take up her time, as if I don't know how to manage it, so take up my time OPC members and send it in, because it's one of the things that no other on demand platform does. No one does. Not a single fitness company out there makes sure, except for they're like, oh, put this suit on, and these little sensors will tell you you're doing it correctly or not. That's not actually how Pilates work. Your body is very different. So Megan, we love that you took full advantage of the favorite parts of OPC and all that you did. Yasmin, you've been with us for a long time, and you've been doing Pilates probably longer than all of us, maybe, maybe, maybe as long as Christine. What's your favorite part about OPC that makes you want to do it, and even wanted to teach about it? Yasmin Scholten 30:50  I would say I found you. You did this Struggle is Real with Andrea Maida and I love this, this Struggle is Real because, yeah, we all have these construction sites, I say, in our bodies, also we as a teacher, and I love to go through this. And this is the same with OPC, I would say. You gain more self-confidence in your body because you're following these teachers who also have these struggles in their bodies. And they give you approach of their method to help you with these struggles. And I really love this about OPC, and also I'm often really overwhelmed and over-stimulated with studio and being mom and family, and I don't want to scroll through hundreds of classes to find this for this day. I don't know what I need. I just want to move. Yeah. Lesley Logan 31:45  Yeah. Well, that was my goal. I used to ask people, why do you not use the membership that you have? And they were like, it's too many. It's like, Netflix. It's like, do you know for the fifth time, Brad and I are watching Schitt's Creek right now, it's not like there's not a new show out there. I know that there's a new season of White Lotus out, and I haven't even switched over because I'm still finishing the fifth round through Schitt's Creek, because you want to know what, I know where it is. I know how to find it, you know, like, so, you know, people were telling me they weren't using it, and I was like, how do I create something that people have accountability for, but also feels like you're at the studio, but doesn't have the distractions or the expenses of the studio, but also all that. So thank you for, thank you for sharing that. And we love, we love Pilates Andrea. Megan, you know, and this goes for, not that Christine and Mindi and I can't talk to what it's like to be busy, you have four kids, and you talked about how running was your thing. How do you prioritize, and you know, if you ask me, and Rachel want to jump in, as a busy mom of kids who need you, your practice, because it would be so easy for you to have an excuse to not.Megan Lauman 32:47  Oh, yeah. I should mention that two of my children have special needs as well, so there's a little bit more time consumed in them. My youngest is 12 and he has autism. He's nonverbal. He functions like an 18 month old, so he does require a lot of attention when he's around. So I do have the best partner in the world. My husband's amazing and we both believe that we need time for ourselves. And so we tag each other in. And of course, we do a lot of the work together, which makes it fun, but we do tag each other into and so having someone that knew what's important to me in making sure that I get that time is just really valuable. Yeah. So it started when my youngest was born and went with running, and it would just be like, maybe it was a nap time, and my husband was working from home, and I could get out for, you know, my first run was a mile and a half. I thought I was gonna die, right? And then I'm thinking back to when they got a little bit older, and I was doing Pilates, and I would just tell them all to work together, and I would turn on a video, and I'd find like a quiet space in the front room, which is now my Pilates studio, and my kids would be in the other room so I could hear what's going on. I knew that they were there, but I had my own space, and the kids would work together and give me, maybe it was 10 minutes, or maybe I got a whole hour that day, but I made it a priority. And you know, I'm thinking back to that time specifically. I would schedule that in in the morning, and they knew at nine o'clock, this is what mom was going to do. We set that expectation. And like I said, sometimes it was shorter than others, but scheduling and making sure I had that time for me.Lesley Logan 34:25  Yeah, thank you for sharing, because I think so many people take on that full responsibility, and maybe they don't have the same amazing partner we know, and we shout out to him. We love him. But also, I think sometimes people aren't asking for help either. We assume people will meet our needs without us verbalizing it as well. So I love that you guys tag in.Megan Lauman 34:46  You can live in this world where you're like, I don't ever get time for myself, and I realize you're not really winning any points for doing that. I have it worse than you isn't winning any points. So let's just make the best of it. And sometimes it's eight o'clock at night before I would get a workout in, but I knew I'd feel better and I'd sleep better if I did it, and sometimes just waking up early or fitting it in there in the day, but figuring out that time for you, I think, is very important. Lesley Logan 35:10  I love that. Rachel or Yasmin, do you have anything to add? Like, on how with kiddos? And I think, Yasmin, your kids are quite young still.Yasmin Scholten 35:20  Yeah, they are eight and 11 and yeah, they need mom a lot. I don't want to lie. It's sometimes hard, really, but they know since, since they are really small, this is a part of my life. So if I don't do Pilates, I get pain, I'm in bad mood, I get a lot of stress, so they know all. So I have also the best partner in the world, and he knows. Often he says, okay, go, go do your workout, and then we will do the rest. So yeah, it is really important to make yourself the priority. It's not easy. With all these we all have so much to do. The day is too short, I guess. So it is important to prioritize, because if not, I get pain, really, I get pain and a bad mood.Lesley Logan 36:17  Yeah, and I don't think people recognize that that pain and bad mood doesn't make you the mom or partner or coworker or friend or sister that you want to be. Then you end up spending time apologizing for being in a bad mood and being in pain and for what you said while you were in a bad mood and in pain, and that just wastes more time that you could spend with yourself. Yasmin Scholten 36:37  Yeah, that's true. Rachel Piper 36:38  The only thing that I have to add is I also have a 12 and a half year old, and he's also autistic, and he's got some other fun flavors going on, like ADHD, which kind of sends him flying off the walls. So finding time to just be in my own space where it's quiet is really, really important. And since I started when he was relatively young, I let him kind of play around with me, or next to me, and then from there, he just understood it's something I do. And now, as he's gotten older, for almost the last year, we've started doing an activity together. So we started taekwondo. If you look at my socials, we did rock climbing yesterday, and that was the first time I'd actually rock climb, but. Lesley Logan 37:21  So cool. Rachel Piper 37:22  He's done it like one other time, and we did it together, and he's very cool about that. He's not quite in the place where he wants to do Pilates with me, but we can do these other things together. And I just want people to know that even if it's 10 minutes or 15 minutes where you can just get on the mat, it helps you do everything else better. There's no way that I could do taekwondo the way that I do it, or just, okay, I'm just gonna scale this wall without training at all, without Pilates. Lesley Logan 37:52  Rachel, I couldn't agree more, because, like, I rock climbed with Brad a couple years ago. I was like, that'll be our hobby together. And to be honest, it's just not close enough to our house for either of us to be able to prioritize it. But, there's no way. There's not a part of me that is a rock climber, except for that I've really long legs, have me pretty strong and has flexibility in my hips. That kind of helps, but nothing else. If it wasn't for Pilates, I wouldn't know how to use my arm and my leg opposite at the same time. Yeah, for sure. But I just have this, are you the only adult in your taekwondo class? Is it all the kids? And like, is it an adult taekwondo class? Is it all the moms?Rachel Piper 38:27  No, it's actually a mix. And it's like the most inclusive place you could find, which is great. There are a ton of neurodivergent people. Lesley Logan 38:36  I love it. Rachel Piper 38:36  And we all take class together. So there are parents of adults, there's adults, there's kids that come on their own, and it's like a super safe place for Alex in this particular dojang, which has made him come out of his shell. So yesterday, he was like, leading me all over the place, like, okay, you do that one and I'll do the one right next to you for rock climbing. It's really helped him come out of his shell. cLesley Logan 38:58  I saw his smile. I saw his smile on something on your post. And I was like, I have not seen that kid smile so big. So it's really cool. Okay, this is, like, not even long enough. We could talk forever. But I want to go into two parts, Be It Action Items. We can't leave an episode without a Be It Action Item. And the thing that makes you actually take class on OPC, because here's the thing, guys, these are all teachers of OPC, except for Tami. We're missing her. They could so easily just film and take the money and run but I also know that they take each other's classes, so I would love to know why they actually do that, like what their favorite part about OPC is. So we'll go with Mindi and then Christine.Mindi Westfall 39:36  So for me, it's constantly learning, right? Learning from other teachers, I think is one of the most important things I can do for myself, teaching my clients, and then also for my own practice, because I learn something new every single time I take someone's class. So that's really important to me. So my Be It Action is actually from Lesley. So, in Agency, the business group, it's take messy action. But I also put that into my own practice, because not every single class, every single exercise, is ever going to be what you want it to be, and you have to take messy action in your own practice and be like, well, that was okay today, but I got to move or whatever it is, like, it doesn't have to be perfect, it doesn't have to feel perfect. Movement is the most important part. And just do it. And no matter what it looks like, what it feels like, at least you're moving your body.Lesley Logan 40:39  I love that. I love how you applied that. Christine, favorite thing and a Be It Action Item. Christine Kam-Lynch 40:44  Similar to Mindi. I think, I think we're all relatively students of life, cannot stop learning. So, I actually love hearing the different cues from different teachers, because sometimes that, like, lands differently depending on the day with me. And sometimes I can actually take that and apply it to, you know, a client of mine, if my words are not working, it's like osmosis or something, that I can be like, oh, how about this? Will this work? That's really fun to try and experiment with. My Be It Action Item is I started treating movement like snacks throughout the day. And I think sometimes we we get tied to a time, like I have to work out 30 minutes, or it doesn't count, or I have to work out for an hour, it doesn't count. No, any amount of minutes that you can sprinkle throughout your day counts. And my mom has really embraced this. My mom, who is a not, not a mover, not an exerciser, she's like, does this count? Like, what are you doing mom?Lesley Logan 41:52  For everyone listening, Christine just lifted her arm and lowered it down. Technically, that would be under the movement category, yes. Is it gonna help her rock climb? Probably not today.Christine Kam-Lynch 42:06  So surprisingly enough, the homework I give my mom, who I didn't think was gonna take it seriously, actually took it seriously, and she does what she can remember for that week, and she just inserts throughout the day is kind of like my new thing, Lesley, like, if I can't get a workout in, just move a little bit here and there throughout the day. You'll feel better.Lesley Logan 42:30  I love it. Yasmin, your favorite thing about OPC, why you stick around, why you take classes and your Be It Action Item? Yasmin Scholten 42:36  I would say I will steal your mantra so we don't have to be perfect. The root is the goal not to be perfect in this moment and just do your workout, practicing with the teacher, and find confidence in your body. Lesley Logan 42:57  I love that Be It Action Item. What's your favorite thing about OPC, though? Yasmin Scholten 43:00  My favorite thing is to be not alone in my studio. So I have a home studio. I'm alone and there's a community for me. I can ask questions. They are wonderful teachers I get to know and I can ask whatever struggle. No question is a bad question or silly question. Lesley Logan 43:23  I love that you brought that up, because I think a lot of people work from home today, and so they're thinking, I need to go out and find something so I'm not in my house all the time, but then they don't have the time for the parking, or they can't afford the membership, or they can't get into classes, and so they could still have a community. Yeah, I thank you for sharing that part. Megan, your OPC favorite thing and Be It Action Item.Megan Lauman 43:45  Yes, definitely love the community. Certainly love learning. That's what brought me there in the first place. But I love how inclusive it is. Sometimes also I just listen to the workouts. Maybe I watch them more than once, but I listen to them while I'm driving a car. And I learn a lot from from everyone, but I what I mean by inclusive is we're not expecting everybody's body to do the same thing. And I think sometimes, if you're just watching an online platform, you're thinking, I have to look like this person who's demonstrating it. I like how all the teachers might say, oh, that rep didn't feel very good. And let's see if it's different this time. Or I felt my hips moved they aren't supposed to move right there, or we're just honest, real and inclusive. And I really do love that. It's inviting for everybody. Be It Item. I'd say, just find a way. Maybe it would be, find a way to do the thing to take a moment for that self-care, whatever that is, if it's five minutes, and maybe it is a mat and it's five minutes on the mat or getting out for a walk around the block or whatever it is, but finding a way. Lesley Logan 44:44  I love that. I love both those things. And thank you for saying that when I set out to create OPC, of course, I always thought of myself as an inclusive person, but I also could see where I alone can't be the whole reason we're inclusive. By the way, that takes the pressure off every single person listening. You alone cannot be for everyone ever, because we all have different life experiences. So we all have blind spots to experiences we don't have. And even if you are super thoughtful and kind and welcoming, it doesn't mean that every single person can see themselves. We just had a new member who was like, I was taking a Reformer class. It was just a little faster and I'm in a larger body, and I'm not sure I'm like, set out for this. And I was like, oh my God, hold on, when is Rachel's next class on the schedule? Okay? And also, I really do mean it when I say, don't do every exercise, you know. So I love that I can refer our new members to different teachers who either have similar body types or schedules or personalities. So yeah, thank you. Rachel, your favorite thing about OPC and Be It Action Item. Rachel Piper 45:56  I actually love it when I have the Work Out With Me list. Oh and I don't even care if just one person shows up to those, but it's just like this little extra community thing in general, because Yasmin said we're very community-oriented, and this is just like another way for us to be able to do it. So I know Megan's done one and we hope to get a few more out there. But everyone's already said kind of what I'm already thinking as well. But I just love hearing what people are doing with their themes. And so sometimes I'll just listen to it, but I'll tell you what, to me there's like nothing better than turning on the camera live as one of the teachers and playing someone else's workout and letting people, if they want to, just sit there and watch me do someone else's workout. Because I will change the workout if I need to. Lesley Logan 46:50  And I love that, because it does give our members, even though we say it and we all say it in a different way, gives people a permission like oh, Lori Watson, who's an honorary teacher of OPC, she has fusions and stenosis, so she changes every workout. But I, guess what, I know that she takes every single OPC workout and she just changes it. And there isn't a workout out there where one of us is going to have to alternate something, because our bodies are so different. So I love those workout, you guys, those are really fun that when she, Rachel, started them and you know that we have OPC members at Wednesdays at 8am Mountain Time, get together every single week, and they all hit play at the same time and take the same class, and then they hang out afterwards. And I just think that our community is so cool. Okay, you have a Be It Action Item. I think I cut you off. Rachel Piper 47:36  So don't show up for anyone else but you and do what you can do and then be happy about it. That's it. Lesley Logan 47:44  The simplest and hardest thing. I think anyone can do yeah, yeah. Lifelong journey. Ladies, okay, real quick. Well, I'll tell everyone you're in, we'll go through Instagram handles so people can find you, follow you, work with you. So Mindi, what's your favorite place on Instagram hangout. Mindi Westfall 48:01  It's Bendy Mindi Pilates. Lesley Logan 48:03  I love it. Rach, with an I, Mindi with an I. Rachel, what's your Instagram handle for people? Rachel Piper 48:11  size_diverse_pilates Lesley Logan 48:15  Love it. Christine, we know you don't like to hang out, but you do, you do have a dog who does. So where can, where can you be found?Christine Kam-Lynch 48:23  No, you can find me at pilates.bound, but if you really want to follow a really cute St. Bernard, it's rammus128.Lesley Logan 48:33  Yeah, yeah, we love Rammy. Megan, your Instagram handle?Megan Lauman 48:37  Instagram is megans_pilates. Lesley Logan 48:40  Megans Pilates. Yasmin?Yasmin Scholten 48:43  It's purapilates_yasmin. Lesley Logan 48:48  Yasmin, wonderful. And you guys, everyone can follow the OPC Instagram so you can follow me, but sometimes I don't talk about Pilates at all, and people like to tell me that I should, but this is my personal it's my personal Instagram, so I'm gonna tell whatever I want, but OPC.Pilates is the Instagram handle for OPC and Tami, we miss you. We'll have you share all your favorite things with the Be It people soon, but I wanted to have everyone on because I think when you think about OPC, it's easy to like think, oh, it's me and these other teachers, but really it's all of us, right? And while I started it, it certainly was never intended to be about me. It was actually a bit more to be about the community. And so every single one of these teachers was in the community first, because I get people all the time are like, how do I teach for your platform? And I'm like, oh, are you a member? Probably not, since I don't know. And so the the teachers were in the community first. And it's about the community and our live monthly classes, our Work Out With Me, the Form Feedback Fridays, all of that is for the community, because we actually grow together. We as teachers, grow because of the questions that our members ask. The members get stronger because our classes are based around their questions, and we all benefit from the accountability and the community that exists. So I hope that if you're all intrigued by any of these ladies and why they got into Pilates and why they do OPC, I hope you join us in our favorite place. And so if you just go to onlinepilatesclasses.com you can, you can join us 40 days for $40. Please share this episode with a friend who's been wanting to do Pilates but they thought it was too expensive. OPC can be part of your Pilates journey that you do at home and you go to a studio. It could be your only way of accessing Pilates, but we always have something for you no matter what you have access to, because you could be a mat rat like most of us. Until next time everyone, Be It Till You See It. Lesley Logan 50:35  That's all I got for this episode of the Be It Till You See It Podcast. One thing that would help both myself and future listeners is for you to rate the show and leave a review and follow or subscribe for free wherever you listen to your podcast. Also, make sure to introduce yourself over at the Be It Pod on Instagram. I would love to know more about you. Share this episode with whoever you think needs to hear it. Help us and others Be It Till You See It. Have an awesome day. Be It Till You See It is a production of The Bloom Podcast Network. If you want to leave us a message or a question that we might read on another episode, you can text us at +1-310-905-5534 or send a DM on Instagram @BeItPod.Brad Crowell 51:18  It's written, filmed, and recorded by your host, Lesley Logan, and me, Brad Crowell.Lesley Logan 51:23  It is transcribed, produced and edited by the epic team at Disenyo.co.Brad Crowell 51:27  Our theme music is by Ali at Apex Production Music and our branding by designer and artist, Gianfranco Cioffi.Lesley Logan 51:34  Special thanks to Melissa Solomon for creating our visuals.Brad Crowell 51:38  Also to Angelina Herico for adding all of our content to our website. And finally to Meridith Root for keeping us all on point and on time.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/be-it-till-you-see-it/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

When life hits hard — through mental health battles, illness, or deep loneliness — it’s easy to wonder if God’s against us. Today’s devotional is a powerful reminder that God is never our enemy. He is always for us, and His love is constant, even in our darkest moments. ✨ Key Takeaways

This week on Diverse Thinking Different Learning, we welcome Dr. Aditya Nagrath. Dr. Nagrath is the founder of Elephant Learning Mathematics Academy and helps students overcome math anxiety, rapidly advancing their skills with just ten minutes of practice a few times a week. He holds a PhD in Mathematics and Computer Sciences and has over three decades of experience as a software engineer, entrepreneur, author, and speaker, working on a wide range of projects from atomic clocks to mobile apps.  Dr. Nagrath joins us for this episode to discuss mathematics anxiety - where it comes from, how it's misunderstood, how to address it and more. A child's early struggles with math are not always just academic but are also emotional and potentially even life-changing.  Dr. Nagrath draws from his rich background in math, computer science, and education to help us break down why so many students begin falling behind in math as early as kindergarten and how early delays often snowball into years of lost confidence, missed opportunities, and career shifts away from math-intensive fields. This isn't just about numbers or curriculum, however. As Dr. Nagrath explains, math anxiety is often rooted in beliefs such as “I'm not a math person” - beliefs that can trigger lifelong avoidance and reinforce themselves with every uncomfortable encounter with numbers. This is truly a vicious circle that hinders growth and learning well into adulthood. The conversation challenges the common misconception that disliking math is harmless. How early numeracy can actually influence language development, how adult comments can unconsciously pass limiting beliefs to children, and why literacy-focused initiatives may be unintentionally crowding out math readiness. Dr. Nagrath also tells us about Elephant Learning, a tech-based platform that adapts to each student's comprehension level and uses gamified learning to rebuild mathematical confidence from the ground up. This episode serves as a reminder that math isn't just a subject but a gateway and that what we do (or, for that matter, don't do) in the earliest years can shape far more than just test scores.   Show Notes: [2:22] - Dr. Aditya Nagrath explains how working with Elephant Learning revealed that minor complaints often mask deeper math anxiety. [5:05] - The belief that "I'm not a math person" stalls effort and future academic/career opportunities. [7:09] - Similar to AI training, learning depends on the meanings that we assign to experiences and challenges. [9:53] - Hear how Dr. Nagrath defines mathematics anxiety. [12:11] - Dr. Nagrath argues that many students' unresolved early math gaps snowball, derailing STEM careers and impacting the economy. [15:48] - Dr. Nagrath also asserts that Algebra is essential because it introduces written mathematics that are needed for interpreting the modern world. [17:40] - Hear how preschool math practice improves children's future reading, writing, and speaking abilities. [19:41] - Dr. Nagrath uses a basketball analogy to demonstrate that practicing math is essential because no alternative "game" exists. [21:46] - Dr. Nagrath explains that Elephant Learning builds math skills by meeting students at their comprehension level with gamified learning. [24:01] - By mapping standards to age levels, Elephant Learning helps students visualize progress. [27:18] - Because of deeply rooted self-doubt, overcoming math anxiety later in life tends to be more difficult. [28:44] - Dr. Nagrath stresses that problem-solving, like basketball, improves with practice rather than innate intelligence. [31:00] - Modern demands require deeper, language-like mathematical understanding. Links and Related Resources: Episode 59: What Is Dyscalculia (AKA Math Disorder)? with Monica Grillo Episode 60: A Multisensory Intervention for Kids Who Struggle with Math with Adrianne Meldrum Elephant Learning Elephant Learning - K-12 School Solutions Treating Mathematics Anxiety: Inclusive Strategies for Working with Students Exhibiting Mathematics Anxiety Connect with Us: Get on our Email List Book a Consultation Get Support and Connect with a ChildNEXUS Provider Register for Our Self-Paced Mini Courses: Support for Parents Who Have Children with ADHD, Anxiety, or Dyslexia Connect with Aditya Nagrath, PhD: Dr. Nagrath's LinkedIn Profile Email: anagrath@elephantheadsoft.com Phone: 303.919.6071

Send us a textDECAL will celebrate Children's Mental Health Week in Georgia May 5th – 9th, as we have done for the last five years during the first full week of May. Similar to Georgia's Pre-K Week, and Inclusive Early Learning Week, this special week reminds us that the early years in a child's life provide a key opportunity to establish safe and secure relationships and support healthy social and emotional development. Joining us to talk about Children's Mental Health Week is our own, Laura Lucas, Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Director at DECAL and our guests: Annie Stewart, Child and Adolescent Clinician, and Gloria Julio the Director of Play Therapy, both from Centerville's One Stop Program at View Point Health. Support the show

@1QLeadership Question: Are athlete injuries predictable? Henry Abbott, Founder of TrueHoop, discusses his new book "Ballistic" which follows the story of Dr. Marcus Elliott and the Peak Performance Project (P3). Abbott talks about how Dr. Elliott's research is being used by NBA athletes to prevent injury. Similar to the way biomarkers are used to inform of possible cardiac emergencies, P3 has developed a way to process data about body movement that can detect an impending athlete injury.  Abbott also goes into the importance of storytelling and its impact on the world of sports. - One Question Leadership Podcast - Tai M. Brown

From Rouses to Saints HQ, the gang connects with Saints sideline reporter and WWL digital content producer, Jeff Nowak, to break down the first two out of five picks the Saints have today with LB, Danny Stutsman, and CB, Quincy Riley, and there might just be more in common with the Browns QB room with than we think.

In episode 1850, Jack and Miles are joined by comedian and author, Zach Zimmerman, to discuss... Pete Hegseth having a rough time, Kristi Noem getting her purse (and WH credentials) stolen, Katy Perry space conspiracy theories, the trade shade on 'Sinners' and much more! White House looking to replace Pete Hegseth as defense secretary : NPR "BREAKING: In an unbelievable clip, Trump was asked about whether there is dysfunction at the Pentagon and Trump responded “ask the Hooties.” It is pronounced HouTHies. / X Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s bag, including $3,000 in cash, is stolen from DC restaurant | CNN Politics Debunking the conspiracy theories claiming Katy Perry’s space trip was a hoax ‘Sinners’ Is a Box Office Success (With a Big Asterisk) - The New York Times "A tale of two movies: Similar deal structures. Similar budgets. One made $45M from 3300 screens, post pandemic, and won the weekend. The other made $41M from 3600 screens pre-pandemic, and placed second. And yet this is the coverage. https://t.co/YUsRvZDT1n" / X LISTEN: Los Chunguitos - Como Yegua Brava WATCH: The Daily Zeitgeist on Youtube! L.A. Wildfire Relief: Displaced Black Families GoFund Me Directory See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Similar to Benjamin Mays, Dorie Ladner (1943-2024) used to say she was “born to rebel.” She fought for human rights her whole life, transforming Social Structures while also centering her Ways of Knowing and the Governance formations she was raised in as an African person in Mississippi, in the Civil Rights Movement and in global liberation movements. Many US debates about reparations, such as Nicole Hannah-Jones article in this Sunday's New York Times Magazine, center what Black people believe that the US “owes” Africans descended from US enslavement. Rebelling against an oppressive Social Structure and Repairing oneself and/or community are not the same. When do we choose one or the other?JOIN KNARRATIVE: https://www.knarrative.com it's the only way to get into #Knubia, where these classes areheld live with a live chat.To shop Go to:TheGlobalMajorityMore from us:Knarrative Twitter: https://twitter.com/knarrative_Knarrative Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/knarrative/In Class with Carr Twitter: https://twitter.com/inclasswithcarrSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week we talk about AI chatbots, virtual avatars, and romance novels.We also discuss Inkitt, Galatea, and LLM grooming.Recommended Book: New Cold Wars by David E. SangerTranscriptThere's evidence that the US Trump administration used AI tools, possibly ChatGPT, possibly another, similar model or models, to generate the numbers they used to justify a recent wave of new tariffs on the country's allies and enemies.It was also recently reported that Democratic mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo used AI-generated text and citations in a plan he released called Addressing New York's Housing Crisis. And this case is a bit more of a slam dunk, as whomever put the plan together for him seems to have just copy-pasted snippets from the ChatGPT interface without changing or checking them—which is increasingly common for all of us, as such interfaces are beginning to replace even search engine results, like those provided by Google.But it's also a practice that's generally frowned upon, as—and this is noted even in the copy provided alongside many such tools and their results—these systems provide a whole lot of flawed, false, incomplete, or otherwise not-advisable-to-use data, in some cases flubbing numbers or introducing bizarre grammatical inaccuracies, but in other cases making up research or scientific papers that don't exist, but presenting them the same as they would a real-deal paper or study. And there's no way to know without actually going and checking what these things serve up, which can, for many people at least, take a long while; so a lot of people don't do this, including many politicians and their administrations, and that results in publishing made-up, baseless, numbers, and in some cases wholesale fabricated claims.This isn't great for many reasons, including that it can reinforce our existing biases. If you want to slap a bunch of tariffs on a bunch of trading partners, you can ask an AI to generated some numbers that justify those high tariffs, and it will do what it can to help; it's the ultimate yes-man, depending on how you word your queries. And it will do this even if your ask is not great or truthful or ideal.These tools can also help users spiral down conspiracy rabbit holes, can cherry-pick real studies to make it seem as if something that isn't true is true, and it can help folks who are writing books or producing podcasts come up with just-so stories that seem to support a particular, preferred narrative, but which actually don't—and which maybe aren't even real or accurate, as presented.What's more, there's also evidence that some nation states, including Russia, are engaging in what's called LLM grooming, which basically means seeding false information to sources they know these models are trained on so that said models will spit out inaccurate information that serves their intended ends.This is similar to flooding social networks with misinformation and bots that seem to be people from the US, or from another country whose elections they hope to influence, that bot apparently a person who supports a particular cause, but in reality that bot is run by someone in Macedonia or within Russia's own borders. Or maybe changing the Wikipedia entry and hoping no one changes it back.Instead of polluting social networks or Wikis with such misinfo, though, LLM grooming might mean churning out websites with high SEO, search engine optimization rankings, which then pushes them to the top of search results, which in turn makes it more likely they'll be scraped and rated highly by AI systems that gather some of their data and understanding of the world, if you want to call it that, from these sources.Over time, this can lead to more AI bots parroting Russia's preferred interpretation, their propaganda, about things like their invasion of Ukraine, and that, in turn, can slowly nudge the public's perception on such matters; maybe someone who asks ChatGPT about Russia's invasion of Ukraine, after hearing someone who supports Russia claiming that it was all Ukraine's fault, and they're told, by ChatGPT, which would seem to be an objective source of such information, being an AI bot, that Ukraine in fact brought it upon themselves, or is in some way actually the aggressor, which would serve Russia's geopolitical purposes. None of which is true, but it starts to seem more true to some people because of that poisoning of the informational well.So there are some issues of large, geopolitical consequence roiling in the AI space right now. But some of the most impactful issues related to this collection of technologies are somewhat smaller in scale, today, at least, but still have the potential to disrupt entire industries as they scale up.And that's what I'd like to talk about today, focusing especially on a few recent stories related to AI and its growing influence in creative spaces.—There's a popular meme that's been shuffling around social media for a year or two, and a version of it, shared by an author named Joanna Maciejewska (machie-YEF-ski) in a post on X, goes like this: “You know what the biggest problem with pushing all-things-AI is? Wrong direction. I want AI to do my laundry and dishes so that I can do art and writing, not for AI to do my art and writing so that I can do my laundry and dishes.”It could be argued, of course, that we already have technologies that do our laundry and dishes, and that AI has the capacity to make both of those machines more efficient and effective, especially in term of helping manage and moderate increasingly renewables-heavy electrical grids, but the general concept here resonates with a lot of people, I think: why are some of the biggest AI companies seemingly dead-set on replacing creatives, who are already often suffering from financial precarity, but who generally enjoy their work, or at least find it satisfying, instead of automating away the drudgery many of us suffer in the work that pays our bills, in our maintenance of our homes, and in how we get around, work on our health, and so on.Why not automate the tedious and painful stuff rather than the pleasurable stuff, basically?I think, looking at the industry more broadly, you can actually see AI creeping up on all these spaces, painful and pleasurable, but generative AI tools, like ChatGPT and its peers, seem to be especially good at generating text and images and such, in part because it's optimized for communication, being a chatbot interface over a collection of more complex tools, and most of our entertainments operate in similar spaces; using words, using images, these are all things that overlap with the attributes that make for a useful and convincing chatbot.The AI tools that produce music from scratch, writing the lyrics and producing the melodies and incorporating different instruments, working in different genres, the whole, soup to nuts, are based on similar principles to AI systems that work with large sets of linguistic training data to produce purely language based, written outputs.Feed an AI system gobs of music, and it can learn to produce music at the prompting of a user, then, and the same seems to be true of other types of content, as well, from images to movies to video games.This newfound capacity to spit out works that, for all their flaws, would have previously requires a whole lot of time and effort to produce, is leading to jubilation in some spaces, but concern and even outright terror in others.I did an episode not long ago on so-called ‘vibe coding,' about people who in some cases can't code at all, but who are producing entire websites and apps and other products just by learning how to interact with these AI tools appropriately. And these vibe coders are having a field day with these tools.The same is increasingly true of people without any music chops who want to make their own songs. Folks with musical backgrounds often get more out of these tools, same as coders tend to get more from vibe coding, in part because they know what to ask for, and in part because they can edit what they get on the other end, making it better and tweaking the output to make it their own.But people without movie-making skills can also type what they want into a box and have these tools spit out a serviceable movie on the other end, and that's leading to a change similar to what happened when less-fiddly guns were introduced to the battlefield: you no longer needed to have super well-trained soldiers to defeat your enemies, you could just hand them a gun and teach them to shoot and reload it, and you'd do pretty well; you could even defeat some of your contemporaries who had much better trained and more experienced soldiers, but who hadn't yet made the jump to gunpowder weapons.There are many aspects to this story, and many gray areas that are not as black and white as, for instance, a non-coder suddenly being able to out-code someone who's worked really hard to become a decent coder, or someone who knows nothing about making music creating bops, with the aide of these tools, that rival those of actual musicians and singers who have worked their whole life to be able to the same.There have been stories about actors selling their likenesses to studios and companies that work with studios, for instance, those likenesses then being used by clients of those companies, often without the actors' permission.For some, this might be a pretty good deal, as that actor is still free to pursue the work they want to do, and their likeness can be used in the background for a fee, some of that fee going to the actor, no additional work necessary. Their likeness becomes an asset that they wouldn't have otherwise had—not to be used and rented out in that capacity, at least—and thus, for some, this might be a welcome development.This has, in some cases though, resulted in situations in which said actor discovers that their likeness is being used to hawk products they would never be involved with, like online scams and bogus health cures. They still receive a payment for that use of their image, but they realize that they have little or no control over how and when and for what purposes it's used.And because of the aforementioned financial precarity that many creatives in particular experience as a result of how their industries work, a lot of people, actors and otherwise, would probably jump at the chance to make some money, even if the terms are abusive and, long-term, not in their best interest.Similar tools, and similar financial arrangements, are being used and made in the publishing world.An author named Manjari Sharma wrote her first book, an enemies-to-lovers style romance, in a series of installments she published on the free fanfic platform Wattpad during the height of the Covid pandemic. She added it to another, similar platform, Inkitt, once it was finished, and it garnered a lot of attention and praise on both.As a result of all that attention, the folks behind Inkitt suggested she move it from their free platform to their premium offering, Galatea, which would allow Sharma to earn a portion of the money gleaned from her work.The platform told her they wanted to turn the book into a series in early 2024, but that she would only have a few weeks to complete the next book, if she accepted their terms. She was busy with work, so she accepted their offer to hire a ghostwriter to produce the sequel, as they told her she'd still receive a cut of the profits, and the fan response to that sequel was…muted. They didn't like it. Said it had a different vibe, wasn't well-written, just wasn't very good. Lacked the magic of the original, basically.She was earning extra money from the sequel, then, but no one really enjoyed it, and she didn't feel great about that. Galatea then told Sharma that they would make a video series based on the books for their new video app, 49 episodes, each a few minutes long, and again, they'd handle everything, she'd just collect royalties.The royalty money she was earning was a lot less than what traditional publishers offer, but it was enough that she was earning more from those royalties than from her actual bank job, and the company, due to the original deal she made when she posted the book to their service, had the right to do basically anything they wanted with it, so she was kind of stuck, either way.So she knew she had to go along with whatever they wanted to do, and was mostly just trying to benefit from that imbalance where possible. What she didn't realize, though, was that the company was using AI tools to, according to the company's CEO, “iterate on the stories,” which basically means using AI to produce sequels and video content for successful, human-written books. As a result of this approach, they have just one head of editorial and five “story intelligence analysts” on staff, alongside some freelancers, handling books and supplementary content written by about 400 authors.As a business model, it's hard to compete with this approach.As a customer, at the moment, at least, with today's tools and our approach to using them, it's often less than ideal. Some AI chatbots are helpful, but many of them just gatekeep so a company can hire fewer customer service humans, saving the business money at the customer's expense. That seems to be the case with this book's sequel, too, and many of the people paying to read these things assumed they were written by humans, only to find, after the fact, that they were very mediocre AI-generated knock-offs.There's a lot of money flooding into this space predicated in part on the promise of being able to replace currently quite expensive people, like those who have to be hired and those who own intellectual property, like the rights to books and the ideas and characters they contain, with near-free versions of the same, the AI doing similar-enough work alongside a human skeleton crew, and that model promises crazy profits by earning the same level of revenue but with dramatically reduced expenses.The degree to which this will actually pan out is still an open question, as, even putting aside the moral and economic quandary of what all these replaced creatives will do, and the legal argument that these AI companies are making right now, that they can just vacuum up all existing content and spit it back out in different arrangements without that being a copyright violation, even setting all of that aside, the quality differential is pretty real, in some spaces right now, and while AI tools do seem to have a lot of promise for all sorts of things, there's also a chance that the eventual costs of operating them and building out the necessary infrastructure will fail to afford those promised financial benefits, at least in the short term.Show Noteshttps://www.theverge.com/news/648036/intouch-ai-phone-calls-parentshttps://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/04/regrets-actors-who-sold-ai-avatars-stuck-in-black-mirror-esque-dystopia/https://archive.ph/gzfVChttps://archive.ph/91bJbhttps://www.cnn.com/2025/03/08/tech/hollywood-celebrity-deepfakes-congress-law/index.htmlhttps://www.npr.org/2024/12/21/nx-s1-5220301/deepfakes-memes-artificial-intelligence-electionshttps://techcrunch.com/2025/04/13/jack-dorsey-and-elon-musk-would-like-to-delete-all-ip-law/https://www.404media.co/this-college-protester-isnt-real-its-an-ai-powered-undercover-bot-for-cops/https://hellgatenyc.com/andrew-cuomo-chatgpt-housing-plan/https://www.theverge.com/news/642620/trump-tariffs-formula-ai-chatgpt-gemini-claude-grokhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/ai-cant-predict-the-impact-of-tariffsbut-it-will-try-e387e40chttps://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/04/17/llm-poisoning-grooming-chatbots-russia/ This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit letsknowthings.substack.com/subscribe

"Preview: Colleague Richard Epstein points to the SCOTUS 1935 Humphrey's Executor decision that stopped FDR from firing an independent board member -- similar to the present faceoff between POTUS and Fed Chair Jerome Powell. More" SCOTUS 1937

The story starts on TikTok. First, with all the things that don't make sense.  After Gabby goes missing - the only person that knows where she might be is her fiancé Brian Laundrie. But he's now missing.  He goes missing for a month straight - before his body is found in a local park in Florida… by his parents. The FBI have been searching for over a month, reportedly spending over a million taxpayer dollars - and his parents find his remains within an hour? What about his mom's “Burn After Reading” letter?She writes that if he needs to bury a body she will bring a shovel.  Or the fact that his remains are completely skeletonized?These are the things that lead people to believe…there is no way Brian Laundrie is actually dead.  The conspiracy being that he faked his death and is now getting away with murdering his fiancee. But how could that even be possible?  Could he really be living in a bunker under his protective parent's house? How would they be able to pull something like his off? Is there any truth to the conspiracy? What does the Laundrie family know?