Podcasts about slightly

Kelly and Julia sit down to discuss loss, settling, nurturing, mixed signals, and knowing yourself.

Ted Lasso season finale continutes to inspire controversey on the show...Coach thinks Alabama should fall further...Who will win the NBA...Why are there so many dang Flying Finns? Slightly stale takes on MLB and Gruden...and finally: is BMOC being nostalgic or is he a guilt-wielding puppet master?

Sometimes, in the midst of pure insanity across the globe, you have only one recourse: plug in your microphones, imbibe to a solid level of inebriation, and press record. So grab a frosty beverage of your choice and enjoy this special Q & A episode featuring our "BTR BFF" Dana Linn Bailey. For more Dana on Insta: @danalinnbailey Send us emails at: betweenthereps@gmail.com  For more Brooke on Insta: @brookeence  For more Jeanna on Insta: @jeanna_cianciarulo To watch Between the Reps podcast videos on YouTube:  https://bit.ly/BTRYouTube  Thanks to our sponsors: Right now, our listeners can get 15% off their Raycon order at buyraycon.com/reps. Start streaming your next obsession. Try Sundance Now free for 30 days by going to sundancenow.com and use promo code reps. Check out ingarden.com to learn more and save 20% off with my code REPS20. You can experience Organifi's high quality superfoods without breaking the bank. Go to www.organifi.com/reps and use code REPS for 20% off your order. We want you to start living a happier life today. As a listener, you'll get 10% off your first month by visiting betterhelp.com/reps. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Episode 153 of Above Replacement Radio, Chris & Daniel talked about the Mariners getting within a half a game of the 2nd Wild Card spot, them winning 10 out of 11 games, and what has caused it. Next, they talked about the continuous success of the Dodgers and Giants, and how rare it is to have those dominant of teams in the same division. After that, they discussed Devin Williams punching himself out of the playoff roster and how the Brewers may have to adjust. Finally, they went into their How About That's, Slightly Alarming Statistics, and their final previews of the weekend ahead of the year.

Hour 3: Gresh and Keefe are joined by Tom E Curran to discuss all the news around the Brady-Belichick relationship and the upcoming game between the Patriots and Buccaneers.  Then the guys discuss if Mac Jones gets a free pass for week 4 against the Bucs. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Good news for home buyers! The crazy housing market cooled down last month, albeit by some very modest numbers. Still, it's an improvement for many buyers that have struggled and been outbid. Average number of offers per house have gone down, less inspection and appraisal contingencies are being waived, and we are seeing more price cuts. Nicole Friedman, U.S. housing reporter at the WSJ, joins us for why some prices have eased. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

Good news for home buyers! The crazy housing market cooled down last month, albeit by some very modest numbers. Still, it's an improvement for many buyers that have struggled and been outbid. Average number of offers per house have gone down, less inspection and appraisal contingencies are being waived, and we are seeing more price cuts. Nicole Friedman, U.S. housing reporter at the WSJ, joins us for why some prices have eased. Next, there has been a huge hack of internet company Epik. They have long been the last hope of websites belonging to groups like the Proud Boys, QAnon conspiracy theorists, and others known for extreme posts. The hacker group Anonymous dumped tons of private data including names and other identifying data and extremism researchers say it will allow them to gain new insight into how they operate online. Drew Harwell, tech reporter at The Washington Post, joins us for more. Finally, you're not crazy… you are spending more time in that fast food drive-thru and they are also a little less accurate. A new study done with mystery shoppers found we are spending about a minute more in these lines than we were last year. When it comes to accuracy, Chick-fil-A and Taco Bell top the list. Amelia Lucas, restaurant reporter at CNBC.com, joins us for what to know. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

Comedians Joe Maresse and Graham Rogers are both back on the pod for a fun episode! They join the girls to discuss Scientology, growing up religious, and red flags in relationships.

Business Pants is BACK with controversial German smoothies, a horse dewormer shortage AND lentil-based whipped cream?? Don't worry, we cover (slightly) less insane stuff too.

On today's IGN The Fix: Games, The PS5 recently got a big firmware update that, among other things, added the ability to expand system storage. Now some experts are saying the new software also improves the performance of select games. In the latest Digital Foundry Direct Weekly show, the crew broke down the differences between the PS5's performance on the new and old firmware. Digital Foundry went on to explain that the performance differences are very minor. The new firmware was causing select games, Control and Devil May Cry 5, to run about 2 to 3% faster than the old firmware. This led to an increase in framerate, only by about 1 to 2 FPS. Epic Games is no stranger to a Battle Royale-based collaboration, but prices for its latest clothing line deal with luxury fashion brand Balenciaga are likely to make even diehard Fortnite fans' eyes water. The Fortnite x Balenciaga collaboration features a number of in-game cosmetics that fans can purchase from within the item shop. However, it's the price of Balenciaga's IRL clothing range that is sure to make heads turn. Today's episode is brought to you by Movies Anywhere. Brian has all that in your Daily Fix!

While the Government urges 'caution' over its decision to ease restrictions in Tāmaki Makaurau, some Pacific health experts are not so sure it was the right thing to do. Pirimia Jacinda Ardern announced Auckland will move to level three from midnight Tuesday for two weeks amid an outbreak of the delta variant in the city. Christine Rovoi reports.

Entrepreneurs are unique, especially serial entrepreneurs and one such entrepreneur is Rupert Schneider. Rupert is the Co-Founder of two Fintech companies, Gardenia Technologies and Vidarr Capital. This is part 2 of my interview with Rupert. Rupert talks about some of the mistakes tech companies have made, smart watches and health, abuse of data, the power of Facebook, companies undergoing digital transformation, and becoming digitally native. Rupert also talks about the future smartphones, looking at internal data, the pro bono side of tech companies and the difference between big data and smart data. More about Rupert Schneider and Gardenia Technologies: Rupert is an experienced director with a demonstrated history of working in the financial services industry. He is skilled in Structured Credit, Special Situations, Start-ups, Trading, and Financial Risk. Gardenia Technologies offers a secure automated solution that digitises the origination, structuring and securitisation process to deliver financial initiatives customised around corporates' working capital needs & lower complexities. Technology-enabled and data-driven, services are delivered seamlessly by integrating with Corporates' ERP, analysing transactional data, accurately predicting risks & providing scaled liquidity at or before the point of trade.

Short answer: If inflammatory markers are low and Lp(a) is proportionally more elevated than LDL-P, then blood lipids probably account for part of the calcification, while factors impacting LDL oxidation come next and those impacting calcification directly come after that. For the latter two, the oxidative stress and calcium sections of the Cheat Sheet should be consulted. Watch the video or listen to the podcast with the links below. You can obtain a full transcript of the episode by signing up for the Masterpass at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/q&a Please consider supporting my work by making a purchase using these links at one of my affiliates: https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/foursigmatic, https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/paleovalley, https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/seekinghealth, https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/ancestralsupplements, https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/magicspoon, https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/lmnt  Plenty more at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/support! If you would like to be part of the next live Ask Me Anything About Nutrition, sign up for the CMJ Masterpass, which includes access to these live Zoom sessions, premium features on all my content, and hundreds of dollars of exclusive discounts. You can sign up with a 10% lifetime discount here: https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/q&a DISCLAIMER: I have a PhD in Nutritional Sciences and my expertise is in performing and evaluating nutritional research. I am not a medical doctor and nothing herein is medical advice.

Slightly later than usual, the JTET team are back to bring you up to date with all the latest J2 & J3 news. This week, Jon & Stuart run through all of the key points from last weekend's J2 fixtures (Round 29 of the season).  After that, Jon makes a brief cameo to wrap up the two rearranged J2 games from midweek (Round 25). With 'Magic' Mike Innes taking a well-earned holiday this week, Jon goes for the hat-trick by standing in as the host of 'J-Talk: Short Corner', and reviewing all of the J3 action from Round 18 as well.  Come back soon, Mike - Jon misses his sleep!  Hope everyone enjoys the show!

Here's what is happening in the markets today, Friday, September 17th:- Fed in the hot seat, Fed Chair Jerome Powell wants a review of the central bank's ethics rules.- Futures slightly lower ahead of "Quadruple Witching."- Take-Two Interactive (TTWO) is down a little more than 1.0% pre-market after an analyst downgrade. - Invesco (IVZ) and State Street (STT) are discussing a possible merger and IVZ is up around 6.0% pre-market.- General Motors (GM) is extending its downtime at 7 plants in North America because of chip shortage issues.- FDA vaccine advisory committee meets today to make a decision on Pfizer's application to offer vaccine booster shots to the general public.- Lucid Motors (LCID) was up 6% yesterday and another 5.0% today pre-market after the EPA single charge rating.- End of a former retail giant...Sears (Sears Holdings: SHLDQ) is closing its last store in Chicago on Nov 14th.If you enjoyed the "Stock Market Today" episode, make sure to subscribe to this podcast. And for more stock market news,  visit https://rockwelltrading.com.#todaysstockmarket #stockmarkettoday #stockmarket

The ladies are joined by comedian Monarey Martinez to talk about mental health, comedy, and listening to yourself. They discuss healing from trauma, spiritual growth, monogamy, and their own journeys.

Jen Psaki crashed our show! And no, this is not comedian Chrissie Mayr in a red wig pretending to be one of the worst press secretaries in American history. This is the one and only Psaki. She brought bad puns and illogical arguments and, worst of all, had the audacity to defend Joe Biden. We apologize in advance, but there was nothing we could do. After all, she did threaten to fire the 100th unvaccinated Blaze employee if we refused to have her on. ________________________________________________________________ SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEW SHOW W/ ELIJAH & SYDNEY: "YOU ARE HERE" YT: https://www.youtube.com/youareheredaily ________________________________________________________________ ⇩ TODAY'S SPONSORS ⇩ ITRUST CAPITAL: Open an IRA w/ iTrustCapital to Invest in Physical Gold & Crypto TAX-FREE! Get 1-Month FREE with Discount Code ($29.95 Savings) Link: https://rebrand.ly/offensive Code: OFFENSIVE AR500: Get the official armor of Slightly Offens*ve that I use at all of my rallies and events. I trust it to keep me safe and you should too. Go to https://www.ar500armor.com/offensive today to see this special offer and use promo code “OFFENSIVE” at checkout for 20% OFF SAFETY NET CLUB: You never know when something bad is going to happen and it's always good to be prepared. That's why the Slightly Offensive team uses the Safety Net Club. It's like a club of people working to increase your financial preparedness by building a Safety Net that affordably fits your needs. If you go to https://safetynet.club/ you can immediately get a $10,000 accidental death insurance policy at no cost to you, ever. Don't miss out, prepare now. ________________________________________________________________ Become a subscriber at BlazeTV https://get.blazetv.com/slightly-offensive/ use my code "ELIJAH" to get $10 off a full year ________________________________________________________________ Slightly Offens*ve Merch: https://shop.blazemedia.com/collections/elijah-schaffer ________________________________________________________________ ⇩ CHRISSY MAYR ⇩ PODCAST/SOCIAL: https://www.linktr.ee/Chrissiemayr WEBSITE: https://www.chrissiemayr.com/ ______________________________________________________________ ➤BOOKINGS/INQUIRIES: ELIJAH@SLIGHTLYOFFENSIVE.COM _________________________________________________________________ ⇩ SOCIAL MEDIA ⇩ ➤ ELI'S LINKTREE https://linktr.ee/elijahschaffer ➤ SAV'S LINKTREE https://linktr.ee/savsays ➤ INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/slightlyoffensive.tv ➤ PARLER https://parler.com/profile/Elijahschaffer/posts ➤ TWITTER: https://twitter.com/ElijahSchaffer ➤ FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/officialslightlyoffensive _________________________________________________________________ The Idea Of A Free Society...For Kids! Head to https://teachrealprinciples.com for a unique book series that introduces the important ideas that schools no longer teach. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

01:19 - Adrian's Superpower: Humor * Making People Feel Comfortable Through Humor * Self-Deprecating Humor & Authenticity 04:57 - Employee Resource Groups (ERGs): What are they? * Employees Share Effective, Measurable, Impactful Insights * Connecting New Hires with People Who Look Like Them * Making Employee Experiences Better 09:20 - How ERGs Operate * “Build with not for” * Making Fellow Colleagues Heard 18:03 - Successfully Policy Implementations: Examples * Transgender Healthcare 23:18 - ERGs and Management / Executive Sponsor Partnerships 30:41 - ERGs vs Unions * Equity 34:19 - Inclusivity Training Reflections: Casey: “ERGs are only as strong as the management supporting them.” Mandy: Live programming + fireside chats over slideshows for inclusivity training. Adrian: Pushing ERGs and DEI initiatives to the next level is crucial and keeping these efforts authentic. This episode was brought to you by @therubyrep (https://twitter.com/therubyrep) of DevReps, LLC (http://www.devreps.com/). To pledge your support and to join our awesome Slack community, visit patreon.com/greaterthancode (https://www.patreon.com/greaterthancode) To make a one-time donation so that we can continue to bring you more content and transcripts like this, please do so at paypal.me/devreps (https://www.paypal.me/devreps). You will also get an invitation to our Slack community this way as well. Transcript: MANDY: Hello and welcome to Greater Than Code, Episode 250. My name is Mandy Moore and I'm here with my friend, Casey Watts. CASEY: Hi, I'm Casey! And we're both here with Adrian Gillem. Adrian is a Technical Project Manager with Booz Allen Hamilton focused on deploying next generation digital transformation capabilities to public sector clients in Washington D.C., Honolulu, Tokyo, and Seoul. Beyond his technical client-responsibilities, Adrian's true passion is grounded in diversity, equity, and inclusion program management and partnership building. Over the years, Adrian helped lead Booz Allen's LGBTQIA+ and African American Employee Resource Groups to new heights; instituting new internal and external partnerships and programs under a DEI strategy committed to representing and empowering our BIPOC, Black, Indigenous and people of color, queer, and ally employees across the firm. Welcome, Adrian! ADRIAN: Thanks, everybody! Good to be with you guys. CASEY: All right, we're going to ask you our first question, we always ask. What, Adrian, is your superpower and how did you acquire it? ADRIAN: [laughs] I've had to think about this. My superpower is humor and I only acquired it because I was able to tell the same bad jokes over and over to my friends and loved ones, and I've just stuck with the ones that people laughed at. CASEY: Testing. You tested them live. ADRIAN: That's right. That's right. They had no choice. [laughter] CASEY: How many of them did you get full on laughter versus nervous laughter versus glares, which were also a sign they liked your pun? ADRIAN: Yeah. I would say that my sarcastic humor definitely got 70% eye rolls, 10% hm and has and then the other 20% were slight laughs, maybe a smirk, or two. But over the years, I hope that it's gotten better more in my favor. People tend to smile a little more when I make a joke, but can't say it's a 100% success rate so far. But we'll see. Maybe I will start my life career as a comedian in the next 10 years since and just retire from technology, or I'll just do both. Who knows, who knows? CASEY: Yeah. There's space for that. ADRIAN: There is. CASEY: Multi-passionate. You can be multi-passionate; you're allowed. ADRIAN: Absolutely. I can make live jokes and do live coding on a set. I'll probably do really bad coding, which will be enough for people to laugh at anyway, so I'll already have material ready to go. MANDY: That's awesome. CASEY: You've got me smiling and laughing. [laughter] Even just the levity you're describing is funny. MANDY: Yeah. ADRIAN: Thanks. I appreciate you both for already bearing with me. [laughs] CASEY: So I have a feeling you incorporate humor like this into your work with employee resource groups. It's hard to imagine you wouldn't. Tell us something like that—some of the joke that you've told, some scenario that you've managed to reframe. ADRIAN: Oh boy, that's a really tough question. I think the way I try to incorporate my humor, especially in my work with our employee resource groups within the firm and especially with our partners outside of our company, is just to make everyone feel comfortable through humor. You start to meet with different folks of different backgrounds for the first time, maybe even for the second, or third time, whether it be at your water cooler, or in the kitchen, or at an actual meeting where you're talking about a diversity, equity, and inclusion agenda. Some folks might walk in and not necessarily know everyone in a room, not feel comfortable to speak in the way that they would like, or act as authentic as they should. So luckily for me, humor seems to break that ice very quickly. It's always very – in my case, I choose to do self-deprecating humor first and then that just gets the ball rolling in making sure that everybody feels open and welcome to be themselves in the space that I'm in. But absolutely, in the ERG, the last place you want to have this stoic, maybe stale environment is an ERG whether it be an ERG meeting, or an ERG get together, or anything like that. You want to make sure that everyone feels very comfortable being in that space and you don't want to have as any hesitancy to that authenticity. So I try to do my best with making many people laugh, even if it is at my own expense and that's perfectly okay, I signed up for it. CASEY: So for listeners who may, or may not have been part of an employee resource group before, an ERG, can you tell us a little bit about what it's like being part of one? ADRIAN: Sure. So being in an ERG, it's an interesting mix. You either are in an organization that has had ERGs for a very long time and there are predetermined ways that it operates. There's a leadership structure. There are formal rules and procedures in place. There's a lot of hype behind it. Folks feel that it actually represents their interest and they can use that to communicate up. By up, I do mean up to management, senior leadership on ways they are not feeling included, or feeling equitably represented in a particular company. And then there are other organizations where unfortunately, a formal ERG structure might not exist and so, you'll have situations where employees informally get together based on shared experiences, based on shared connections, based on shared racial identities, or gender identities, or sexual orientation identities. But they don't have a formal way, or a formal mechanism to do that. So in our case, in organizations that do have formal ERGs, really what it is used for is to make sure that staff have an effective, measurable, an impactful organized mechanism to really share insights on things that are affecting them as an individual employee and share it across colleagues that also might be feeling similar impacts, or might have similar experiences. To provide a specific example in this case, I lead, or I'm on the board, rather of our African American Network. That's what we call it. Really, it's focused on engaging our African American and more generally, our brown and Black persons of color employees across the firm to make sure that their voice is not just heard, but felt, that their impact is not just seen, but felt in the way our company operates and the things that we focus on and try to improve on. In that, most of what I'll do is typically liaise with our employees that are, let's say, onboarding for the first time to the company and they want to feel connected to that wider corporate group. We are a company of 26,000 employees, so it's very hard to feel like I can connect with a bunch of people pretty easily. So connecting with new hires via this mechanism of an ERG provides an easy way for folks to get together with a smaller subsect of our staff. But get connected with a subsect that actually looks like them, talks like them, has had shared experiences and memories and livelihoods and lives just like them and so, that's just part of it. The other part of it is representing our respective employees and our members within the ERG and their interest to upper management, to our human resources division, and folks with just a stake in understanding what is impacting our employees that are particularly aligned to this group and how can we make their experiences better. But better in the sense that they're able to be more effective in their job, feel more authentic in their day-to-day, and feel more appreciated for the unique contributions that they're bringing each and every day that they support the work that we do. So I think that's a lot and I'm happy to break it down even further because I think that this is such a really, really important element that companies that have it formally structured sometimes take for granted because they might not be effectively funding it, or giving it the oomph, I'll say. The energy and relevance to do that kind of impact that I'm describing that I feel is unique to Booz Allen. But in a way, it's also a call-to-action for maybe smaller or mid-size companies that, like you mentioned, might not have a formalized structure like this and yet have employees who want to band together and make it so, so they have a way to drive that type of impact I was talking about earlier. MANDY: So you create these groups—people who look like me, act like me, are like me identify in the same way that I do and we see things, where do we go from there? We identify the things that we want, or need. Do we go management? Do we go to HR? What's the kind of, how is it structured? ADRIAN: So that's a very good question. I think ERGs and really, business resource groups, depending on the company, have varied reporting structures. In the case of Booz Allen, we as an ERG work very closely and almost hand-in-hand with our formal diversity, equity, and inclusion departments, our human resources specialists, our recruiters, all those within that part of the company, to make sure that what we're hearing at what we like to consider at the grassroots level is actually delivering change that can be felt by our employees. Now, what that does not mean is that employees would somehow come to us as an ERG with let's say, a formal employee level, or human resource level complaint, and we pass it on their behalf. No, no, no. That's not really the focus. The focus really is to make sure that everyone, broadly speaking, has a chance to voice things that are really important to them and their situation—basically connected to their identity and however they choose to identify in a particular space so that we collectively can share those insights to departments and components of a business that drive that policy discussion and policy change in response to situations arising. So in our case, in the wake of the increased exposure of Black Lives Matter protests across the United States, in the wake of the murder of our brother, George Floyd, in the wake of so many impactful events that have happened over the last 2 years, not to mention a pandemic that we're all kind of living through in our own way, ERGs have become the focal point to articulating what really is, or are the needs of our workers, our colleagues, our friends in this company—whichever company that you might work for—and how can we represent what they are actually dealing with on a day-to-day basis? Because I think one of the things that we forget is not all employees feel comfortable to go to human resources with an issue. Not all employees feel comfortable going to management with an issue—and I speak as a project manager myself. Especially when it comes to particular situations that are specific to issues that might be affected by their race, by their sexual orientation, by their gender identity, and so on and so forth. So an ERG provides that formal, but not management connected mechanism to gather all of those insights, gather all of those feelings, and tell a narrative that's structured, but impactful to the human resources and management leadership elements of a particular company to drive that change. Now, all of what I've described is the ideal. That's the ideal way that ERGs ought to operate in a particular environment. But I am very well aware that some, if not a lot, of companies don't do it that way. They're playbook for employee resource groups is I one of two things. Either you will have a loose band of employees that may have won, what we call, executive sponsor that doesn't have a lot of weight to throw on it and by extension, financial support, leadership recognition to then drive that kind of impact. And then another is where there is no ERG presence whatsoever. But in this context, I'm also still talking about big companies, larger companies, even companies at my scale where all of the discussions, all of these things that I've talked about are really just management led. So to provide an even more specific example that I think we've all heard about time and time again, especially in the wake of all of what we've experienced over the last 2 years, a lot of companies just hire a chief diversity and inclusion officer and call it a day. That's their impact, or they put out a press release that says, “We are going to revamp our recruiting strategies and we're going to “do better” to represent our minority employees, our employees of minority, gender identities, or sexual orientations.” But at the end of the day, that doesn't really translate to a grassroots level initiative of that delivers that kind of change. So taking it all back to your question of is an ERG seen as that formal mechanism to interface between staff and human resources? It is, but only in the context of with it, we can get a lot more critical insight that feels more authentic, that is more authentic, because it's driven by our employees, vice waiting for one or two employees to feel comfortable going to HR directly with an issue, or concern and not really driving that kind of impact the way we would like to. CASEY: It reminds me of the phrase “build with, not for.” So the second scenario where you just hire a DEI officer and they just do it on their own without including the people who are affected is like a build for. But if you get people involved who are affected without forcing them to either, which is the other end of the spectrum. [chuckles] Like you've got to invite them and they have to accept it and be content happy working with it. Maybe you have time. I'm wondering, do you feel like you have working hours, time dedicated you can spend on the ERG work, or do you squeeze it in between everything you do? ADRIAN: That's a good question, actually and a good point to bring up. I, myself, am very passionate about this stuff and I love doing it. So even if I feel like I'm adding on to my day-to-day work, it's not really a big deal for me because I know that what I'm doing is driving an impact that I am very, very excited to do each and every day. But more importantly, I get to go to sleep at night because I know that I'm just not doing a day-to-day job, that is doing day-to-day monotonous work, that there is a value add to it that I'm able to do liver to my colleagues, my friends in my company, and send a clear message of what I stand for and what I want to represent, what I want to share. But for others, and especially in some corporate environments, you might see two structures. One structure is companies might devote to each employee a set number of hours that they can use to do what we'll call volunteer work and sometimes, this volunteer work may include ERG support, or ERG leadership, or program management, or event management. Others do not. So other companies expect that you focus on your day-to-day and anything you do outside of that is volunteer work that can be tracked, but there is no formal mechanism to track it. At Booz Allen, and I can at least speak for our company specifically, we actually have a requirement almost and if not a push, that's been significantly increased the last year to leverage what our employees are doing in ERGs across the firm to help advance their case for promotion, for role change, really, it's to make sure that our employees are feeling like even if they are doing this as a volunteer role and it feels it is on top of their day-to-day, that there is a value to it. It might not just be value that they feel internally, but rather it's also value that is shown up at the end of the day, when they're up for promotion, or they're looking for an expanded role, or they're looking for a reward for the comprehensive effort that they're putting into the company. But I think, by and large, most people don't focus on that because for a lot of ERG work, it's just because you want to do it. You want to make your fellow colleagues heard, and you want to use the leadership and the voice that you have and the willingness you have to articulate their message on their behalf, and you want to do it well so much so that if it takes a couple extra hours, a week, or a month, it's worth it. CASEY: Cool. I love having the whole overview. I've got a clear image now. ADRIAN: Yeah. [laughs] MANDY: So tell me a story. I like stories, okay. So I was wondering like, if you could give a specific example of something, a policy that an ERG advocated for that you're a part of and that it got changed, or improved, or something? Like, is there a specific, “I want this,” and then what happened? ADRIAN: Sure. Actually, [laughs] I could give you like 15. MANDY: Go for it. ADRIAN: But I'm going to boil it down to the one that I remember most and that really was a policy change that was implemented in, I think it was late 2017 perhaps, or maybe early 2018 where we were pushing for expanded, I would say, healthcare policies—I should say we say—better healthcare coverage for our transgender employees, one and on a side to that, trying to figure out how do we better represent our transgender employees who want to transition while working for the company and make sure that their benefits are covered. But also, articulate to the company, what are those benefits? What do they need? What are their healthcare needs? What is, or should be the needs that happen in the workplace outside of just healthcare? Things of that nature. What is a set list of guidance that Booz Allen can use to better represent and better support transgender employees? So GLOBE, which is the LGBTQIA employee resource group at the firm, was at the forefront of that. We were taking the lead role in coordinating with our employee retention staff, human resources staff to articulate what exactly those needs will be and make sure that it is implemented in a timely fashion. What I mean by timely fashion is a lot of these initiatives that maybe ERG led could take months, if not years. But in this case, we were able to expedite it because we had built partnership with our HR departments, with our entities that could actually implement the kinds of policy changes we wanted for our transgender employees. So based on our guidance, we were actually the ERG task with developing those initial guidelines and guidance on what should be medical coverage options for our transgender employees. In addition to that, we also set out guidance on what are the things that transgender employees want out of their management? What are the expectations on how they would like to be treated, how they would like to be addressed, how they would like to operate in our environment, in our corporate environment? So we set all of that up as one package that we were able to successfully route up to our leadership. Again, I might be providing a cavalier-sounding story, but one thing I want to make sure everyone understands, and especially your viewers, is that we are a company of 26,000 people so making any change quickly is very hard. It takes an enormous effort. So the fact that we were able to start from a piece of paper and one partnership and scale that up to an entire LGBTQIA board like ours, our leadership, and a set of sponsors at the human resource and management and leadership level at our company to also include our Chief People Officer, Betty Thompson, in span of just months was absolutely remarkable. In fact, we were able to make that implementation, that change in time for our next pride summer session, which is really the hallmark and really, the focus that we had as our target. So by 2018, we had formalized the process, we had formalized these new changes to the policy, but the focus point was it was an ERG that led it. We led the discussion, we led the change, and we made the coordinated effort and we carried it along the finish line, along with our helpful partners in human resources, and especially under the leadership of our Chief People Officer. I don't want to sound like I'm drinking the Kool-Aid too much, but I was really glad that we were able to do that because it's stories like that that made me want to stay working for not just my company because I think all companies try to do good for their employees in one way, or another. But it made me specifically want to stay on the board of our ERG and continue supporting the work that we were doing just because I got to see what kind of impact we can actually do if we work together with them and actually empower them to do the type of work that we hopefully intend for them to do on a regular basis. MANDY: That's awesome. CASEY: Yeah, great story. I'm impressed. ADRIAN: Yeah, don't be impressed about me. Be definitely impressed by the team that I was with. I was a member of the board, but it really was a collective effort, which is usually the story for all ERGs across most corporate environments. CASEY: I'm impressed with the structure that's set up that incentivizes all of this to happen. The ways that it should to have the people involved who are affected and all that, that is so cool. It's a good structure. ADRIAN: Yeah, no, it was. [chuckles] I would say that it was a hard-fought battle. I don't think anything like this is easy. One, because one thing for, I think for all viewers to keep in mind is that employer resource groups are only as strong as the management that's supporting them. So that's why there has to be this partnership, this very strong tightly knit partnership, not just amidst the grassroots level members of the ERG, but also, the executive sponsors that you have behind it. What do I mean by executive sponsors? Because I brought that up a couple times when I was bringing up some of the stories. Typically, you hear the term sponsor and you might think like a brand sponsor, or for, I don't know, a sports event, or something like that. In our case, program, or executive sponsor is a dedicated leader within the company who provides strategic level direction, more important funding, to make sure that our activities and our ability to operate continue unabated. So it took a lot of time, effort, and number of years for Booz Allen, and I can say that confidently, to recognize the importance of having a tightly knit, but influential set of executive sponsors aligned to each ERG. What I mean by that is some ERGs have two, or three vice presidents that have access to budgetary resources to fund events, programs, and partnerships that we'd like to do in a particular fiscal year. Others might just have one, but that one might be the Chief People Officer of the whole company. So all of that is very, very critical because having a formal structure, meaning you have a board chair, or you have a board member set up and members is good. But at the end of the day, if you don't have a backing behind it, or help your organization, or your ERG be more influential, unfortunately, can almost appear like a club. People are going after hours, having a good time, but they're not really making change they want to see in their company. So you always, always, always, if you're trying to stand up your own ERG within your small business, or in your mid-size business, or trying to even improve the effectiveness of your ERG in a large company, if not larger one, you want to make sure that you have executive sponsors behind you who have the backing of your C-suite leadership and can help you and your team really affect the change that you're trying to affect. But in our case, we just got lucky and over the years, we've had pretty solid relationships with our executive sponsors. They're pretty cool people. I must say Betty, our Chief People Officer, she's pretty awesome. I remember talking to her for 20 minutes during a trip about Prada bags. If that doesn't tell you about my superficial love of Prada bags, I don't know what will. But it is good and I think it is continuously great that we have that type of representation, have that type of backing, and I think that should be almost commonplace for most organizations. CASEY: This reminds me of two things I want to share. I think you'll find them interesting. One is this idea of executive sponsors reminds me of how in high school, when you have afterschool groups that students want to self-organize, they need a teacher to sponsor it, or they cannot do it. They cannot stay in the classroom. Even if the teacher doesn't do anything, they don't have to do anything necessarily. The students can maybe run their club, like practicing improv from things they found online, but they need a sponsor. But it's even better if the teacher is involved and they're actually teaching improv, or whatever the afterschool activity is. A friend of mine is a teacher and does that so, I'm thinking of her. It's interesting; you need that support for things to get done and you don't need babysitting in ERGs, but you do need it for other reasons like influence. They can influence a whole lot. That reminds me a little bit of my friend was telling me about a choose your own story adventure game that Harvard Business Review put out where you were trying to make change in an organization like Trans Healthcare, or something like that. And then how do you do it? You make all these choices. Two things that surprise me how impactful they were, like those scores were way above the others, were the leadership support that you're describing and external consultant support. Even if—we know the story—the consultant says what the employees say gets done. So it's funny, either source of authority can have a huge impact. We like to ignore it, but it's really powerful and we shouldn't ignore it if we want to get of things done. However you got it to happen at Booz—I'm sure it varies by company how you can get the support, what it looks like—but that's really powerful. Were you around for that part before you got Betty on your side? ADRIAN: So, [laughs] no. Unfortunately, when I came in, we had already had a pretty strong relationship with Betty. It seems like Betty was ready to go and support everyone, which is always great. So no, I didn't get to see the lead up efforts to having to influence all of our leadership to provide that backing. But I think that speaks to the enduring, I would say, commitment that that Booz Allen has to our employees via these employee resource groups. Because specifically, even as early as the 90s, Booz Allen had set out a policy to, in this case, specifically recognize support and empower all our LGBTQIA employees. Something that was completely unheard of in the time for a lot of companies that, again, were existing in the wake of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, the Defense Against Marriage Act, et cetera. Our company, for an enduring period of time, has made a very strong commitment to representing our LGBTQIA employees and making them feel not just welcome, but empowered and making them feel like they have someone on the CEO leadership level in their corner ready to defend them. But I wouldn't want to just talk about my company only. I feel that, by and large, we have seen a significant uptick in major brands, over the last even 5 years, making stronger statements, making stronger efforts, making more substantial improvements in how they operate and engage with employees of diverse backgrounds. The respective ramp ups for them probably are very different than what was it was for Booz Allen, but I imagine, at least I would hope, that of those companies, ERGs played a role in making that lead up a little bit easier. I haven't worked in every company in the United States. I don't think everybody has. CASEY: Oh, not yet. ADRIAN: As much as I would love to. [laughter] Not yet, not yet, but I would hope that the story is probably the same across the board; that it wasn't just a decision made in a vacuum by some director CEO, that it was a coordinated effort partnered by an employee resource group operating at that grassroots level capacity. CASEY: Yeah. I believe that it's got to come from the top and the bottom. If you just have one, or the other, it's not really going to go far. ADRIAN: No, it's going to hit an impasse, it's going to stop on the train tracks like, if you're on Washington Metro. CASEY: That single tracking red line, yeah. I've been there. ADRIAN: That's right. That's right. [laughs] CASEY: This all reminds me a little bit of unions, but it's not unions. ERGs are not unions. They're different. They don't do formal requests, like you mentioned, complaints. But there is some formal structure; there's funding coming from the company. That's even the opposite of unions, too. But I don't know, something about it feels similar. It's like, people coming together to support their points of view. ADRIAN: Yeah. In a union, obviously, there's a membership, there's a formal charter, there's your set union president—they negotiate on your behalf for the company to do things that you want. You're absolutely right. Outside of the legalese language, if you will, there are very much a lot of similarities and even historical connections between unionizing and employee resource groups. Really, the only difference rests in what is the collective bargaining capability between the two. ERGs do not bargain in any official capacity, but unions do. But you still have absolute value in formally standing up and empowering and strengthening your ERGs in the same way that you would recognize the inherent legal power, legal capabilities, and legal recognition of any union that your business might be dealing with. It's a very good point you bring up because a lot of times, folks just feel like ERGs are that thing that they might get an email about and hear an event about, but maybe not think twice about it because it's not impacting their day-to-day. As in, it's not impacting their salary, it's not impacting their livelihood, their employee experience at a particular company. But one thing people forget is that half the time, these ERGs are the reasons why companies have events and programming opportunities that talk about different ways to grow in a firm. For example, the women's group of Booz Allen tends to be the leader in hosting a lot of events that talk about networking, career empowerment, career improvement specifically for women in the workforce. Now they might be targeted to women who work within Booz Allen, but the message is broad and the message far exceeds the walls and halls of our company in that they want our female colleagues, regardless of where they might see fit physical location wise, to succeed equally. But that also comes with the equity part and I think that equity part is what makes kind of union like efforts that ERGs play in our companies so important because equity is what makes sure that regardless of the situation, we are going to give you the resources that at respond to your situation and give you the tools to succeed in spite of whatever you might be dealing with. Whereas, before diversity and inclusion departments would just have an equal way of responding to a thing, but the way that they wanted to solve a problem might not necessarily work for Black and brown employees, the way they want to solve a problem might not work with women, employees, or Black female employees. So to bring it all together when we're talking about [chuckles] the union-like functions of an ERG, you're absolutely right. We have organized ways to deliver mechanical if not systematic change, but change that have an impact and that impact every single member that might be tied to a particular group. But we also do it in a way that's structured. We do it in a way that ensures that there is an impact that can be felt in and outside of the organization. CASEY: This also makes me think about inclusivity training like a lot of HR departments give to their employees. I've heard mixed reviews, but the content's good. We want the content. People want to know how to treat their coworkers really well. They want the awareness of what to say and not to say to people. People like that, that I've worked with. But a lot of the HR training often is like a PowerPoint presentation online that gets tracked, how many slides you look at—it's very cookie cutter and no one wants to talk about it afterwards, or share notes and that helps a lot, if you can talk about things. Anyway, it doesn't feel as impactful as it could be. Do you have experience with inclusivity training like that and does the ERG work in interact with that any? ADRIAN: Yeah. So that's actually really interesting because a lot of companies are struggling with that. How do you bridge the gap between diversity equity inclusion and at a very large scale in making it as generalized as possible, but still target the employees that it matters to the most? So a lot of trainings now, especially as we're in a remote environment, are just like you said, just a lot of PowerPoints, a lot of online trainings. You've got to click through slides on a video and hope to God that you can actually click and fast forward past the slides because if you don't – [overtalk] CASEY: Oh, yeah. ADRIAN: Then you've got to actually wait through the slide and nobody wants that, but – [overtalk] CASEY: Just with a transcript. That's accessibility. [overtalk] ADRIAN: That's exactly right. CASEY: When accessibility makes that happen, I am so happy. I can read so much faster than listening. ADRIAN: Absolutely. I have read so many books and that has proven to me that I can read through a transcript faster than listening to a [chuckles] slideshow presentation. But what our ERGs try to focus on is live programming and I think that's the big distinction here because a lot of mechanized training programs that companies try to offer in diversity and inclusion, sensitivity training, inclusivity training, they're bound to systems and applications—technology that delivers the widest variety and the widest accessibility possible. Whereas for us, our focus is really just targeted to live events with speakers, fireside chats, having our members do round table discussions where we're bringing together our members to talk about the things that they want to hear. We're more flexible in that we actually can of course, solicit and obtain topics that our employees want to talk about and have experts connected to that, whether it be inside, or outside of the company, to share their insights and share their expertise. The reason why I think that's so valid and so valuable is you ensure that the audience actually can connect to what you're talking about and they see a face behind it. They don't see a slideshow with a portrait of a guy, some weird just stable figure with a suit doing weird static things that's supposed to action an image. That doesn't do it anymore. Nobody wants that. People want live programming. Folks want to see someone that looks like them, talks like them, has lived experiences like them, share insights that can relate. So for us, now more than ever, we have been doing a lot of fireside chats with Black and brown authors, queer authors in the space to articulate the creative side to anti-racism, anti-LGBTQIA hate, things that our employees want to hear as an ERG, but don't want to see via slideshows that management puts together or has an outside consultancy or vendor put together. In fact, one of our more recent events that the African American forum, or African American Network, rather in partnership with GLOBE, the LGBTQIA resource group I mentioned earlier, we recently put together a live event focused on queers in the workplace. Specifically, queer people of color in the workspace and we targeted this specifically to focus on how are our brown and Black employees operating in a not just telework posture, but how are they feeling? How are they feeling with their colleagues? How are they feeling working with their supervisors? How are they feeling working with their clients? Do they experience, or are they experiencing, or have they experienced issues where they didn't feel welcome in a particular client space? How are they dealing with responding to issues that management needs to hear about, but in a telework environment where the only thing you can do is set up a Zoom call? Those types of conversations can't be had effectively in a slideshow presentation that you're doing on a webcast. These are things where you want and have to have a grassroots level organization that is formally structured articulating the message, and having people who live those experiences articulate it for you and with you, and have that live dialogue to where your staff can feel that they're learning about the inclusivity that your company is trying to enforce, but actually have it stick because they heard it from a colleague. They actually heard a story that connected with them. I think that's one message I would want to harp on the most is that all of what we do and by we, I do mean the collective ERG enterprise, regardless of whatever company you work for, that's the focus is messaging. You want to make sure that your ERG is sending a message that when that employee joins it, or when that employee participates in an event, or when that employee sees the ERG's name, they know that it represents authenticity. It represents a connected feeling that they can take back and say, “Hey, if I don't feel comfortable going to HR, but I know that I can have a voice to hear my issue that looks like me, talks like me, sounds like me, but in my own company,” then that's exactly what we want to send. That's the type of manage we want to ring home. MANDY: Absolutely! CASEY: Yeah, that sounds great. That reminds me of a panel we did together before, Adrian. Years ago now. [laughter] Tech Talk, D.C. We did Queeries in Tech. Queeries like queer, but also like the tech pun, like the aQueries. [laughter] ADRIAN: See. You see, Casey, you're going to take my bad joke job away from me. I'm CASEY: We work together here. We're collaborative. MANDY: I love it. ADRIAN: That's right. CASEY: Build with, not for. ADRIAN: Yeah. I feel like I've been saying the same message, though since our last talk. So I'm at least improving that I'm consistent if even if my consistency falls on deaf ears from time to time. CASEY: That's okay. Repetition is key to influencing this kind of level. ADRIAN: That's right, yeah. That's what my music teacher used to tell me, when I was singing really badly, “Just say the lyric and sing it louder and over and over, you'll get that.” CASEY: Yeah. ADRIAN: “Don't worry. Somebody will listen to you.” MANDY: That's why you've heard 250 episodes of this show. We [laughs] say it all over and over and over again in hope that people will pay attention. [laughter] CASEY: Yeah. Slightly different perspective, but always similar themes. It's true. ADRIAN: That's right. Well, I hope it's this lucky 350th episode that somebody finally listens to it and says, “Ah, I get the message. I get what they're talking about.” MANDY: We're only at 250. ADRIAN: 350 times, but here I am. MANDY: We're only at 250. ADRIAN: Oh, 250? [overtalk] MANDY: But maybe a 100 more times. [laughs] ADRIAN: [laughs] Okay. CASEY: I think this episode, we will get some ERGs at companies that didn't have them from this episode. I'm sure. People listen to it not just when it comes out, but for a long time afterward, it still comes up. I don't know, but we'll find out. If anyone does, let us know. We'd love to hear a success story, or even a challenge story where you just sang the notes wrong a lot. I'd love to hear that, too. MANDY: Please add us. ADRIAN: Yeah. Or even then, I would love it if your users could even share their experiences with their own ERGs. CASEY: Yeah! ADRIAN: Because my experience is not the only experience. I am obviously well aware I'm talking from the perspective of a member of two boards. So I imagine others might have different experiences and those are valid. Those are absolutely valuable because whatever insights you share about your experiences with an ERG, those are the experiences we want to hear so we can improve on them collectively. It's a valid resource to have, but it can only be grown better if we have that kind of grassroots contributions on a regular basis. So don't be afraid. I always tell people, “Don't feel bad to tell me I'm doing something wrong because if you don't tell me I'm doing something wrong, I'm going to continue doing it and I won't know.” CASEY: Yeah, I'd love to hear more people's stories. MANDY: Yeah, and if anybody's out there that has one of these stories and wants to come on the show to talk about it, please get a hold of us because we love telling these stories, like I said, over and over and over again because that's how change is made. CASEY: We want your voice. You can reach out to us on Twitter, or we also have a Slack community you can join. Greater Than Code Slack; you can find the link to that on our website greaterthancode.com. MANDY: Yes, and it is a Patreon donation, but if you DM one of us panelists on Twitter, we will let you in regardless if you decide to sponsor us on any kind of basis, or not. We let everybody in as long as you, too are greater than code. CASEY: Ding! Love it. Adrian, you'll be in soon. MANDY: Yeah. CASEY: We'll bring you in. MANDY: Yeah, he'll be in. It sounds like this is a good time to move over to reflections for the episode. We usually let our guests go last, Adrian. So Casey, do you want to give us a start? CASEY: My takeaway is Adrian, you said the sentence, whether you remember it, or not, “ERGs are only a start wrong as the management supporting them.” That's so true. ADRIAN: Yes. CASEY: I've tried to do changes so many companies from the grassroots level without the opposite of support, whatever that would be. No one was shutting us down, but if no one was supporting us from above, it didn't go that far and that's a recipe for frustration. MANDY: For me, I really took away how the live programming over slideshows is so important. Just having the fireside chats and the round table discussions, inviting people who are behind the scenes advocating for this stuff on the frontlines is just much more impactful than sitting there through a slideshow a first day of training like, “This is how we –” we already know all this, okay. So having that audience connection and being able to be interactive, I think is really important way to handle and get things done and not just being sat at and talked to. Being like, “Okay, so, let's have a discussion.” Open it up to the audience and do a back and forth. I love panels for that reason is that you can just feed off each other and yes and others and I feel that that's really good way to go about things. ADRIAN: Absolutely. At least for me, I have been just awestruck, I would say, especially on all of the conversation points that we've had so far, but most specifically the fact that we can share in the article that Casey had mentioned from Harvard Business Review and honing in on that idea that some organizations experience that ramp up where they have external consultants, they have external influences, internal influences, all trying to come together and figure out what's the best way to push an ERG, or a diversity, equity, and inclusion initiative, or effort to that next level. Get their employees a bit more engaged. They feel a bit more represented, feel a bit more committed to the mission that the company is trying to get after because it's so crucial. The one thing I would add to that, as part of a final note for me, is for any company that is doing ERG work that has some formal structure, or even if you are a small business, or mid-size business and you have employees that are even talking about it, or hearing about it, make sure that that effort that either is already there, or you're seeing it grow into something, remains authentic. That it has authenticity tied to it and that authenticity can, will, and only can come from the employees who put it together. So make sure that if the employees say want an ERG, make sure that they're absolutely committed to it, all facets of it because it's a lot of work, but it's good work. And if you have a preorganized and structured ERG that just wants to take it to the next level, make sure that you have management and executive sponsors who also believe in that vision for authenticity. I think we, as queers and allies in tech, need and see authenticity. We recognize it all the time and every day and everything and everything we say and do that is also represented in the employee resource groups that do such good work, but can only do such good work if there's an authentic passion behind it. MANDY: I love that. You're so right. A 100%. CASEY: I have a feeling you've said some of this before because it's so polished and clear. You're articulate, Adrian. I love it. ADRIAN: I honestly have thought about becoming just a dish jockey and just going on radio and then just quitting my day job. But then I realized that would only be successful for maybe one episode and then I would just get boring and then I would forget. [laughs] So I'm going to keep my day job. I'm going to leave you two as the experts on this stuff and I'll just keep saying the same message for the next few 100 years and hope somebody listens. MANDY: Well, thank you so much for coming on this show. It's been wonderful. CASEY: Thank you. MANDY: You have been amazing in explaining all of this. I've honestly never heard of ERGs before. That's why I just sat here and was listening like, “Yes!” Thank you so much for talking about it. ADRIAN: Sure. MANDY: And you are welcome back on this show anytime! Special Guest: Adrian Gillem.

DB-Sep14,2021: With oil demand projected to continue strengthening for the rest of the year and OPEC upping their 2022 demand forecast, Tony Greer of TG Macro joins financial journalist Maggie Lake to analyze the sustainability of oil's ongoing rally. Greer also shares an updated perspective on inflation as the CPI begins to cool off while prices remain elevated as well as on his long Bitcoin position. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Slightly earlier than usual! Terence, Albert and Sam talk all things non-Palace (Zig and Zag, anyone?) and a few things Palace. This episode includes a look back at the Spurs match report as well as a look ahead to the visit to LiverpoolSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/holmesdaleradio. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Entrepreneurs are unique, especially serial entrepreneurs and one such entrepreneur is Rupert Schneider. Rupert is the Co-Founder of two Fintech companies, Gardenia Technologies and Vidarr Capital. This part 1 of my interview with Rupert. Ronan talks to Rupert Schneider about his background, what Gardenia Technologies does, AI and machine learning, and analytics. Rupert also talks about crypto, retail investing, Vidarr Capital, early adopters, and Apple. More about Rupert Schneider and Gardenia Technologies: Rupert is an experienced director with a demonstrated history of working in the financial services industry. He is skilled in Structured Credit, Special Situations, Start-ups, Trading, and Financial Risk. Gardenia Technologies offers a secure automated solution that digitises the origination, structuring and securitisation process to deliver financial initiatives customised around corporates' working capital needs & lower complexities. Technology-enabled and data-driven, services are delivered seamlessly by integrating with Corporates' ERP, analysing transactional data, accurately predicting risks & providing scaled liquidity at or before the point of trade.

Slightly more than just a jigsaw! This one is basically just a chilled-out jigsaw game, but the puzzles tell a cute story as you go. See the video version of this episode here! Social Media: See everything TroytlePower related by visiting this page! Follow the show on Twitter at @TPPTPPTPwTP or follow Troytle directly at @TroytlePower! Support the show, hear episodes early, get bonus content, and even request specific episodes by checking out the Patreon Page! Check out The Power Play-Throughs Podcast on Youtube for video versions of some episodes! We Can Make This Work Probably Network: Follow the We Can Make This Work Probably Network to keep up with this show and discover our many other podcasts! The place for those with questionable taste! Join the Probably Work Discord! ProbablyWork.com Twitter, Facebook, Instagram: @ProbablyWork Email: ProbablyWorkPod@gmail.com Geek to Geek Media Follow Geek to Geek Media to join our community in geeking out about the things we love. Join our Slack or Discord! GeekToGeekMedia.com Twitter, Instagram: @GeekToGeekMedia Patreon Digital Magazine

On this episode the girls have a slumber party and discuss their recent trip to Big Bear, their standards, their friendship, including their favorite and least favorite qualities about the other.

There's nothing more intimate than a letter, card, text or message written for your eyes only. The epistolary novel has been popular for centuries, and romantic stories using this device can feel like the best kind of eavesdropping.https://www.confessionsofaclosetromantic.comMovies/TV ShowsThe script for Love & Friendship takes Jane Austen's epistolary novel Lady Susan to new heights. I always call this director "Will Stillman" but it's Whit.84 Charing Cross Road will always have a special place in my heart. The book and movie are delightful.Daddy Long Legs has it all: So playful and Parisian! The costumes! The music! Slightly inappropriate with the age-difference trope! Kevin Bacon plays the titular character in I Love Dick and the whole thing is a visually fascinating, messy, complicated look at desire.I find most Hallmark movies insipid, but the lead actors' chemistry, locations and script for Her Pen Pal made it super enjoyable.BooksYou can read Lady Susan by Jane Austen on Project Gutenberg.I cried multiple times while reading the romance-novel-in-text Way Down Deep. The ending felt a bit rushed to me, but it's an HFN and the characters are beautifully fleshed out despite learning about them in short messages. Their emotional journeys are unbelievably compelling.From the smart banter and hilarious plot, to the funny heroine and gorgeous grumpy hero, The Billionaire's Wake-Up-Call Girl is one of the best romances I've read this year. Can't wait to read the whole series.In Flashed, a former male model and party boy gets in a near-fatal accident and hides away at his secluded ranch. He reluctantly hires a local art student as his live-in cook and housekeeper with one rule--she's not allowed to see him. So she resorts to texting him.Stay is about an exclusive virtual assistant service that promises its VIP clients anonymity--until the owner figures out that the customer sending her mildly flirty texts requiring her attention at all hours is a hot hockey superstar. The World Needs More Love Letters is a wonderful letter writing project.The Penpalooza penpal project started in Spring 2020 as a way to connect people during the pandemic, and now has more than 10K members.

Welcome to the SampleCon 2021 Highlights Series. Recorded live in Pasadena, this series is bringing interviews straight to you from exhibitors, speakers and attendees at this year's event. In this interview, host Jamin Brazil interviews Patrick Comer, Founder and CEO of Lucid.  More about SampleCon 2021: https://samplecon.com/ Find Patrick Online: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/comerpatrick/  Website: https://luc.id/   Find Jamin Online: Email: jamin@happymr.com  LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jaminbrazil Twitter: www.twitter.com/jaminbrazil  Find Us Online:  Twitter: www.twitter.com/happymrxp  LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/happymarketresearch  Facebook: www.facebook.com/happymrxp  Website: www.happymr.com  Music:  “Clap Along” by Auditionauti: https://audionautix.com  [00:00:04] Jamin Brazil: Hey, everybody, I have with me a special guest - Patrick Comer - Who has been a dear friend of mine since I started in the industry - Well, not technically in 1996, but right around 2000 working at OTX. And we've sort of been - I would say - Brothers growing up in - [00:00:19] Patrick Comer: Brothers in arms since the beginning. [00:00:21] Jamin Brazil: In arms, that's right. Yeah, no kidding. I remember when you started Lucid Fulcrum, I think -? Is that right? [00:00:25] Patrick Comer: It was Federated Sample. Because I'm really good at branding. [00:00:26] Jamin Brazil: Federated, Federated. That's right. Federated Sample. Lucid certainly nailed it. [00:00:30] Patrick Comer: Yeah, much better. [00:00:31] Jamin Brazil: Much better. And also, the godfather of SampleCon, where we are blessed to be today. Welcome to the show, sir. [00:00:39] Patrick Comer: I'm super thrilled to be here. I've never done a podcast in front of everyone else. Slightly awkward. You can hear all the background noise of how awesome things are going. [00:00:49] Jamin Brazil: It is a packed house. [00:00:50] Patrick Comer: Yes, it is. [00:00:53] Jamin Brazil: A lot of energy. I've done quite a few interviews so far. Everybody is so thankful that we have the opportunity to be able to get together. Seriously, thank you for starting this. [00:01:03] Patrick Comer: Absolutely. It's wild to see it so energetic and passionate after you're out of the situation. I remember telling Rachel early on that we'll know SampleCon is successful when I'm no longer involved. And to see such a strong board, to see such strong and passionate sponsors, and to really see the entire industry all together here is worth that risk. Because you can imagine how they get you. Is that really the right choice? Are you supposed to let go? Are you supposed to let everyone else run the baby? The desire was it would be a neutral ground. Territory for all. That we could have a real conversation. Sometimes you have to realize the only way to make that happen is to get out. What is also incredible is Rachel and the board have taken it to a level that we never would have if it was just Lucid. I didn't understand that it would expand far greater than I would have imagined by letting it go. [00:01:57] Jamin Brazil: It's been three years that you haven't run it, but there has only been two sessions, or two instances, you haven't. What is it like for you attending and not being in charge of it? [00:02:06] Patrick Comer: Oh, so much better. So much less stress to not actually - It's much better to be the attendee than to run it. Just ask anybody who has run a conference before. You have to let - Or I have to let the agenda - The primary reasons that we're here be in everyone else's hands. It's no longer my story, or the things that I think are important are the things that are important. Literally, it's us, not just what I'm coming up with. [00:02:32] Jamin Brazil: SampleCon is this - There is not another space inside the market research space that is as comp...

On this episode, the girls are joined by producer and actor Juliet Fessel for a wild ride. They get into how her and Kelly met, how their friendship developed, various jobs in the entertainment industry, goals, music taste, and married life.

This may be the most favorite Thirsty Thursdays of all the Thirsty Thursdays. Whether in fair or in dark stormy weather, Jappy Jaws delivers! The rememnats of Hurricane Ida came through to the New York area, and Lindsay truly believes this is a sign that end is near. Slightly dramatic, but there is always something new happening around us. However, Jaw-ers I encourage you all to check out the links below to see how you can do a little of your part to help those that were affected by this natural disaster. Your favorite Jappy hostess with the mostest is headed to the one, the only JERSEY SHORE for the first time this Labor Day weekend. With Jaws always on the mind, Lindsay thought this weekend would be the perfect opportunity to mix business and pleasure. Find out how next week's episode will be like none other, thanks to this upcoming weekend. A brief Bachelor in Paradise recap that you all certainly did not ask for, but was delivered. Are we a fan of the spoilers? Do we think there will be engagements? Paradise has truly been delivering all it has to offer, and we're looking forward to the rest of the most dramatic season yet. Jaw-ers, lets be real. Dating is hard. Friendships are hard. LIFE is hard. It is so easy to get lost in your thoughts on the possible outcomes of your future with or without someone could look like, and we all have so many unanswered questions. Today's special guest is here to hopefully give a little more clarity. This week the host of the Podcast Seeing Other People - Ilana Dunn joins Lindsay to chat about these topics. Ilana's background of seeing other people, relationships, and job experiences have been able to give her the platform to share all those unpredictable life moments. The two breakdown dating anxiety, biological clock, and everyone's favorite - talking about the crazy. Get your dating apps ready, happy listening! Make sure you follow Jappy Jaws and Lindsay on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jappyjaws/ https://www.instagram.com/lindsayyanyaa/ Tik Tok: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMJvhfqHa/ Inquiries: jappyjaws@gmail.com https://linktr.ee/lindsayyanyaa Ilana Dunn Socials: https://www.instagram.com/ilana.dunn/ https://www.instagram.com/seeingotherpeople/ https://linktr.ee/seeingotherpeople Hurricane Ida Relief Resources: https://secure.projecthope.org/site/SPageNavigator/2021_08_Hurricane_Ida_Response_Ads_UNR_SEM.html?autologin=true&mfc_pref=T&s_src=ads&s_subsrc=ads_sem_gs_topical_d2d_ida082921&utm_source=fundraising&utm_medium=ads&utm_campaign=louisiana+hurricane&gclid=Cj0KCQjw7MGJBhD-ARIsAMZ0eeuA4ixjSKOeXRTKSENlgh1-HTWSvvMCL-ghZqhbAbxt1YYEVHW2CJcaApoEEALw_wcB https://www.redcross.org/about-us/our-work/disaster-relief/hurricane-relief/hurricane-ida-relief.html https://www.unitedwaysela.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=127

Grab your copy of the book we read today, Slightly Scandalous by Mary Balough, here!Want to listen to a certain segment? Here is our outline this week:0:00 - 06:25: Intro/Author Facts06:25 - 15:53: Synopsis15:53 - 19:55: Parlour19:55  - 58:02: General Book DiscussionSubscribe to our email list to learn what we're reading next month, for fun extras, and more!Follow us on Instagram @tnstrumpetsFollow us on Twitter @tnstrumpetsFind us on Facebook facebook.com/tnstrumpetsAnd subscribe to us on YouTube!And join us next time for our interview with Julie Anne Long! 

U.S. stocks continue a calm stretch. Amazon seeks to hire 55,000 for corporate, tech roles. Apple to add driver's licenses to Apple Wallet. Charlie Turner reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Slightly late in publishing this very chilled summer edition of Small Hours but hopefully this means you can remember fondly if you managed to get away (we hope you did) or for those who weren't as fortunate try and cling onto what never really began! Expect some post punk vibes, a rather gorgeous legend track alongside our usual inane chatter as we ask the burning question - what do you do in the bath?!

Here's your morning news: New COVID cases up slightly; LAUSD vaccination drive now underway; State closes all national parks due to wildfire danger; State legislature passes bill to protect those in senior living homes from eviction. Support the show: https://support.laist.com/laistnav

Episode 146 – Company of Legends Preview   Slightly different episode here due to time restrictions and all that jazz. This episode I take a little look at the event run by the Edge of Empire crew, Company of Legends: Fall of Angels. I briefly run through the background and then look at the army I am taking to it.     Teespring store: https://teespring.com/en-GB/stores/the-imperial-truth If you want to support the show then consider purchasing from Element Games. http://elementgames.co.uk/?d=10057 Don't forget you can use the codes for extra crystals, mine is GRE259 You can also support the Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/TheImperialTruth If you enjoyed the show then please leave a positive review on Itunes. You can contact the show via Greg@TheImperialTruth.com You can follow us on Twitter: Show – @Imperial_Truth Greg – @ChildofFang Also our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/the.imperial.truth.au And our facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/436768449815184/  

The “boys” are back in town! The ladies are back after a little hiatus, to celebrate Slightly Bitter's one year anniversary! They sit down to discuss their favorite episodes they've recorded, breaking bad habits, fears, and the Betty Broderick story.

[Transcript below] Adapted by Julie Hoverson from the short story by H.P. Lovecraft and Kenneth Sterling When Kenton Stanfield takes a job on Venus hunting for power crystals, he finds the hazards of the job too much to handle.  Cast List Kenton Stanfield - Reynaud LeBoeuf Frederick Dwight - Cole Hornaday Marshall Miller - Pat McNally Dana Manners - Julie Hoverson Supply Clerk - Marge Lutton Recorder - Beverly Poole Music:  Kevin MacLeod (Incompetech.com) Recorded in Conjunction with ART (American Radio Theater) Editing and Sound:   Julie Hoverson Cover Photo:  Julie Hoverson  "What kind of a place is it? Would you believe it's a mining colony on the steamy jungle planet we call Venus?" ___________________________________________________________________ Within the walls of Eryx  Adapted by Julie Hoverson from the original story by H.P. Lovecraft and Kenneth Sterling. This was the second story I ever tried to adapt - the first one I did as an audio drama.  I had previously adapted The Thing on the Doorstep into a short film script - which I much later rewrote into an audio drama, and that will come up when it comes up.  This one was also one of the original ten episodes I put together for the series. You can see, I was starting with an easy writer to adapt.... H.P. Lovecraft.  HAH! Since then, I have actually adapted a LOT of Lovecraft, and one of the reasons his writing is so hard to translate into other mediums is that much of his genius is in his actual use of words, and unless you quote his long descriptive passages word for word, you lose that.  And if you do quote large chunks of it, you might as well just make an audio book.  I try and walk a fine line. As an aside - I know the title of the story is actually "IN the Walls of Eryx", but that always bothered me as being incorrect - the RATS are IN the walls (in the story The Rats in the Walls).  These guys are WITHIN the walls - between the actual walls, you know? In the Walls of Eryx was one of HPL's many collaborations and rewrites.  Little is known of Kenneth Sterling, the high school student and aspiring writer who sought Lovecraft's help, but he was clearly a sci fi fan - Eryx is unusual among Lovecraft's works as being a pure scifi story, with very little horror or mythos or mythical background to it, even if Lovecraft is generally credited with a complete rewrite and expansion of Kenneth's original idea. In the 1930s, when this was written, a common sci fi trope was that Venus was a steamy jungle planet, often populated by some lizardy species, and it appears as such in this story.  The other details are fairly unique to Eryx. Since the original story was all one man's report, technically written out, I had to pull scenes from his story and create them, and the characters in them, from whole cloth.  Not to mention adding somebody - "Miss Manners" - he could report in to throughout the story, to add some audio texture when Kenton was technically out on his own, as well as the voice for his "recorder" unit, which also functions as a sort of encyclopedia, and helps break up the heavy data dump of "this is how Venus works".  Perhaps the weirdest thing to try and portray in audio is the very "visual" presence - or absence - of the walls themselves.  A maze of invisible walls.  Or the native Venusians - whose weird cries were originally geese, if I remember correctly.  I think I slowed them down and ran them backward, or something like that. I also chose to tell this story vastly out of order, to give a sense of foreboding from the very start, as the audience hears how bad Kenton is doing, winding down, but still without giving away how it will ultimately end.  To make the time shifts clear, since they happen throughout the story, I created three different background ambiances for his log entries - since they have no other point of reference - each with his breather machinery getting a bit clunkier and running down.  Beyond that, everything rested heavily on Reynaud LeBeouf, the actor playing Kenton, to create the stages of the character's downward spiral.  We did record each set of scenes separately, out of order, essentially, so all the chatty beginnings were all at once and the weak and wearied end at the end.  Rey is one of my core group of go-to actors, and you'll hear him a lot in 19 Nocturne Boulevard. This was also recorded with the help of A-R-T - American Radio Theater - and many of the actors in it were part of that group.  A-R-T is a group of old time radio enthusiasts who focused on re-creating old episodes and working on the occasional newer play.  Having been part of the group for years before I began 19 Nocturne Boulevard, I featured various actors from A-R-T in a number of my episodes. _______________________________________________________________ WITHIN THE WALLS OF ERYX Cast: Kenton J. Stanfield (M/25), space prospector Frederick N. Dwight (M/30), space prospector Marshall Miller (M/40), commander Dana Manners (F/30), contact at control Supply Clerk (any) Recorder, mechanical voice (any)   OLIVIA      Did you have any trouble finding it?  What do you mean, what kind of a place is it?  Would you believe, it's a mining camp on the steamy jungle planet we call Venus?  NOTE:     "AMBIANCE" CUES ARE FOR BACKGROUND SOUNDS THAT CONTINUE THROUGHOUT EACH SCENE.  THEY ARE DETAILED AT THE END OF THE SCRIPT MUSIC SCENE 1.     KENTON'S LOG AMBIANCE     LOG 5 KENTON     [filter, weak]  Venus month 6, day 14, nighttime.  Kenton J. Stanfield.  Perhaps my final report.  [rasping bark of almost laughter]  My fifth whole day.  Canteen went dry at noon.  Food tablets not dangerously low... yet.  Chlorate cubes are my real worry.  I feel...weak from my forced economy in oxygen, and from my constantly mounting thirst. MUSIC   SCENE 2.     MINING BASE SOUND     TWO MEN WALK IN A FACILITY KENTON     [hale & hearty]  You're still using Carter oxygen units?  But they're so darn heavy! MILLER     Budget's god around here, kid.  You'll see.  We're not funded like the government. KENTON     A Dubois mask isn't that much more, and does the job at half the weight.  Saves on chlorate cubes, too. MILLER     Just figure how much "not much more" IS when multiplied by over a hundred prospectors.  If you last up here, you can always get yourself a Dubois.  [chuckles]  Once you start making the big bucks. KENTON     The way you say that... MILLER     Oh, it happens.  Just not that often. MUSIC   SCENE 3.     KENTON'S LOG AMBIANCE     LOG 5 KENTON     [filter, weak]  I do not know the time.  It is dark.  There is something damnable... something uncanny... about this labyrinth. I could swear that I had eliminated certain turns through charting, and yet each new trial belies some assumption I had thought established.  Never before did I realize how lost we are without visual landmarks.  MUSIC   SCENE 4.     JUNGLE SOUND     SLIGHT, RHYTHMIC BEEPING CONTINUES UNDER ENTIRE SCENE [crystal detector] SOUND     [FILTER] CRACKLE OF RADIO INTERFERENCE INTERMITTENT THROUGHOUT. DANA     [filter]  Hey greenhorn!  This is your contact, Dana Manners, speaking.  [chuckle]  That's Miss Manners, to you.  You got me for a glorious half hour. KENTON     What?  Why only--? DANA     [filter]  Don't none of you boys ever crack a manual?  [quoting]  "The company's only rebroadcast orbiter is a" - well, it's a dang fast critter - so it "provides a window for one half hour approximately every six hours for each sector."  And that's your first five minutes.  Care to waste some more, or you plan to make some kinda report? KENTON     [chuckling]  Sorry!  OK, my coordinates-- SOUND     different beeping [pocket recorder] DANA     [filter]  Good-Ness.  Did you bring your blankie, too?  All that boring info is sent up automatic-like.  KENTON     [worried]  But... my log, too? DANA     [filter]  [pause, prolonging the agony]  Nah, takes too much juice.  This way, you get to edit out all your little personal comments and naughty little secrets before handing it over for archiving. KENTON     [relieved]  Oh.  Good.  DANA     [filter]  So you one of those boys who grew up just panting to work on Venus? KENTON     Actually, I wanted to be a writer.  Venus just pays better.  Now it seems like I-- DANA     [filter]  --got hustled out of the base the minute your feet touched the sweet soggy ground?  Y'ain't the first.  "Here's your mask, grab your suit, what's yer hurry?" KENTON     Pretty much. MUSIC   SCENE 5.     KENTON'S LOG AMBIANCE     LOG 5 KENTON     [filter, weak]  ...Continued.  The effect of all these fr-fruitless wanderings is one of profound discouragement.  I can understand how poor Dwight must have felt.  His corpse is now just a skeleton, and the sificlighs and farnoth-flies are gone.   MUSIC     SCENE 6.     MINING BASE AMB          CANTEEN, EATING MILLER     It's all about the crystals, kid.  You read the manual? KENTON     Well... MILLER     You had an entire rocket trip and--? KENTON     [sheepish]  Well...  There was this poker game-- MILLER     [oh lord!]  Save me from greenhorns with less sense than kittens!  That book could have saved your life, you know.  KENTON     Well, I figured there'd be time-- MILLER     There's never enough time.  Men who can withstand the strains of crystal hunting here on Venus are few and far between.  Most - like yourself - last no more than three trips.  KENTON     What makes you think--? MILLER     Prove me wrong. DWIGHT     [off mike]  Hey!  Miller! MILLER     See that?  Now there's a guy who knows his beans. DWIGHT     [coming closer, gloating]  Miller!  Read it and weep! SOUND     paper FLOURISH. DWIGHT     Twenty-three carats! MILLER     Twenty-three?  That's-- DWIGHT     Right there in black and white.  Beat that! MILLER     [to Kenton]  Kenton, this is Dwight - Fred Dwight, one of the brightest stars of the Terra Nova Corp.  DWIGHT     The brightest star.  Ken, is it?  Well, Ken, there ain't no one else out there's netted as many total lifetime karats as me.  Over seven hundred.  KENTON     Oh.  Um, I don't-- MILLER     Kid skipped the manual. DWIGHT     Pfah.  OK, it takes about 20 karats to power, say the entire city of Chicago for a year.  Shoot, by my calculations, I've kept the entire eastern seaboard lit for the last five! MUSIC   SCENE 7.     KENTON'S LOG AMBIANCE     LOG 4 KENTON     [filter, tired]  Nightfall.  There is nothing to do but persevere.  Dwight would have got out if he had kept on a minute longer.  It is just possible that somebody from Terra Nova will come looking for me before long, although this is only my fourth day out.  MUSIC   SCENE 8.     SUPPLY OFFICE SOUND          OBJECTS BEING BROUGHT OUT AND SET DOWN SUPPLY CLERK     Suit fit OK?  Last chance. KENTON     Feels fine. MILLER     With the tropical atmosphere out there, you better be sure - five days is a long damn time to chafe. KENTON     [chuckles]  I understand.  I'm sure.  So my tour is five days? MILLER     To start with.  You remember Dwight?  Now there's a long-hauler.  Does about 2 months - earth months, 60 days - on most trips.  SUPPLY CLERK     Food tablets.  One week. SOUND     BOX being set down. MILLER     But then, he's been Cytherean for over a decade.  KENTON     Cytherean?  MILLER     Means "of Venus" to us long-timers.  We feel "Venusian" sounds too damn silly after all the crummy movies. SUPPLY CLERK     Breathing unit. SOUND     larger box KENTON     Cytherean.  Got it. MILLER     Dwight's practically one of the locals.  You seen them yet? SUPPLY CLERK     Chlorate cubes.  One week. SOUND     another box KENTON     Only pictures - now THAT part of the manual I did look over.  [shudder]  Creepy little buggers, aren't they? MILLER     Little?  Ken, Ken, Ken.  [sigh]  You didn't look hard enough - on average, the lizard-men run seven feet tall! KENTON     Holy--! SUPPLY CLERK     Recording unit. SOUND     box MILLER     Don't worry too much.  They're-- well, they're not harmless, not by a long chalk, but they're... manageable. KENTON     So those...tentacles they've got for arms...? SUPPLY CLERK     Crystal detector. SOUND     box. MILLER     Arms, legs, tongue, who knows what they are - Yup, four or five feet long on some of them.  We call them lizard-men, what with the greenish, scaly skin and all, but they're not really like anything back home. KENTON     [awe]  Seven feet tall... SUPPLY CLERK     Flame pistol.  Fully charged. SOUND     box. MUSIC   SCENE 9.     KENTON'S LOG AMBIANCE     LOG 4 KENTON     [filter, tired]  Four days out.  I think.  I am resolved not to hasten matters as Dwight did.  His grinning skull has just turned toward me, shifting by the groping of one of the scavengers that are picking him over.  The ghoulish stare of its empty eye-sockets is worse than the tentacled onlookers that stand gloating around the invisible barrier laughing at me.  Another day and I shall go mad, if I do not drop dead from exhaustion. MUSIC   SCENE 10.     JUNGLE SOUND     strong, rhythmic beeping THROUGHOUT SCENE [crystal detector] KENTON     You still there, Miss Manners? DANA     [filter, very crackly throughout]  Just another coupla minutes.  What's your beef? KENTON     I've got a reading on my crystal detector - looks like a big one.  DANA     [filter]  Them things ain't reliable for size, just direction.  Could be just an itty bitty one, real nearby. KENTON     Well, what's the terrain like due, um... SOUND     beeping gets slower, then picks up again AS HE TURNS KENTON     North, I think, of my current position? DANA     [filter]  North?  [prolonged crackle]  --Erycinian highlands--  [crackle]  --last known position of-- SOUND     crackling.  CLICK - radio turned off. KENTON     Great.  On my own again.  Recorder? RECORDER     [filter, mechanical voice]  Ready. KENTON     Erycinian highlands? RECORDER     [filter]  A plateau mapped by Matsugawa from the air fifty years ago.  Designated 'Eryx'  One of the few areas of any size on Venus noted for a lack of vegetation-- KENTON     Off.  Lack of vegetation?  That'll be a relief.  Anything to get out of those rubbery creepers and overhanging fronds. MUSIC   SCENE 11.     KENTON'S LOG AMBIANCE     LOG 3 KENTON     [filter, normal]  Month 6, Day 12, my third day out.  Afternoon.  In less than an hour, I saw that the jungle growths were thinning out, and by five o'clock - after passing through a belt of tree-ferns with very little underbrush - I emerged on a broad plateau.  My progress now became rapid, and I saw by the wavering of my detector-needle that I was getting closer to the crystal I sought.  MUSIC   SCENE 12.     KENTON'S LOG AMBIANCE     BAR - MAINLY MALE VOICES MILLER     Some brainy types insist they're intelligent.  DWIGHT     The lizzies?  [dismissive]  Screwballs. KENTON     Well, they build cities-- DWIGHT     Anthills.  Beehives.  And we don't try to make treaties with bugs, do we?  Hmm? KENTON     But they talk... don't they? MILLER     That's been debated for years.  There seems to be some pattern to the tentacle movements-- DWIGHT     Yeah, and bees dance.  I've been out there longer than just about anyone, and they're nothing but a damn nuisance. MILLER     A religious nuisance. DWIGHT     So they worship the crystals.  Big deal.  They can't use 'em - don't even know they do anything more'n glow.  If we wanna change things, we got about two real choices-- MILLER     [ironic]  Try and civilize them, like we did with everyone back home? DWIGHT     Nah - they're way too primitive for that.  I say we either gotta cage 'em up like the animals they are-- MILLER     We've tried THAT one before, too. DWIGHT     Or we can just blow em all away.  Why not?  They're not decorative, useful, or even edible.  They don't do ANYTHING worth keeping 'em around. MUSIC   SCENE 13.     KENTON'S LOG AMBIANCE     LOG 4 KENTON     [filter, tired]  Note to self.  Um, day - fourth.  Fourth day.  I racked my brains with speculations regarding the material, origin, and purpose of the strange edifice.  That the hands of men might have reared it, I could not for a moment believe.  Human knowledge does not include any perfectly transparent, non-reflective solid such as the substance of this building.  Did a forgotten race of highly-evolved beings precede the man-lizards as masters of Venus?  The strange and seemingly non-practical building and its material suggests a religious purpose. MUSIC   SCENE 14.     PLATEAU SOUND     RADIO STATIC KENTON     Contact?  You back yet?  Manners?  Damn. SOUND     crackling static.  radio CLICKS off KENTON     This is just... nuts!  SOUND     two thunks - pounding on stone wall KENTON     What the heck is this stuff? SOUND     pounding, hand groping along wall KENTON     Hmm.  Smooth.  Cool to the-- SOUND     RADIO STATIC DANA     [filter]  Contact here.  Report? KENTON     Have I got a report for you!  I found an invisible wall! MUSIC   SCENE 15.     KENTON'S LOG AMBIANCE     LOG 5 KENTON     [filter, weak]  Fifth day out, and I doubt I will see a sixth.  Very weak.  Did not sleep much till daylight.  Must save chlorate cubes, so I'm nearly suffocating for lack of oxygen.  Can't walk much of the time, but ma-manage a crawl.  Those damnable green things keep staring and laughing with their tentacles, and sometimes they gesticulate in a way that makes me think they share some terrible joke, just beyond my perception. MUSIC   SCENE 16.     PLATEAU DANA     [filter]  Listen to me real careful now, Ken.  You need to close your eyes and start backing up.  Right this minute. KENTON     What?  My recorder unit lists nothing about invisible walls-- DANA     [filter]  You backing up yet?  Ignore anything you see or hear-- KENTON     Why, for crying out loud? DANA     [filter]  Get yourself clear first, then check your recorder's entry for mirage-plants.  Move your backside!  Them things're deadly. KENTON     Wait.  No...  Wait a minute.  I'm in the middle of the plains of Eryx.  No plants within a half mile.  Nothing to see but mud, and-- [cuts himself off] SOUND     BEEPING [crystal detector] DANA     [filter]  [beat]  Yeah?  Mud and ...? KENTON     [evasive]  Hmm?  Oh, the walls.  But you can't SEE them because they're invisible. MUSIC   SCENE 17.     KENTON'S LOG AMBIANCE     LOG 3 KENTON     [filter]  Third day, supplemental.  What made my heart leap was a smaller detail, whose position could not have been far from the plain's exact centre.  It was a single point of light, blazing through the mist and seeming to draw a piercing, concentrated luminescence from the yellowish, vapor-dulled sunbeams.  This, without doubt, was the crystal I sought.  I could hardly wonder, as I glimpsed the distant glow, that those miserable man-lizards worship them. MUSIC   SCENE 18.     PLATEAU SOUND     squishy footsteps, intermittent throughout KENTON     --maybe 20 feet tall - I managed to throw a handful of mud about that high, and it went over. DANA     [filter]  I ain't got any maps or archives with specifics for that locale.  Not a popular spot, seeing as there's none of the streams them crystals show up in. KENTON     No streams, but plenty of damp - the whole plateau is-- [slight shudder] --like a solid sheet of slimy mud, with a light frosting of ground mist.  DANA     [filter]  Could this wall thing be some kinda natural phenomena? KENTON     Too smooth.  Very regular.  Slightly curved, too, I think.  Ovoid. DANA     [filter]  You writers and your big ole words...  Been all the way round yet? KENTON     I don't think so, but I can't really tell-- DANA     [filter]  [condescending]  Well, did you hit your own dainty little footsteps again? KENTON     Not a chance.  The mud is so liquid, it just doesn't take - not even for a minute.  It's like I haven't been here before. DANA     [filter]  I need you to mark your position and come back to base, Ken.  This is way outside standard procedure.  You hear me? KENTON     Got it.  I'll get out of here pretty soon.  I just wanted to--  SOUND     BEEPING [crystal detector] SPEEDS UP SLIGHTLY.  THEN IS MUFFLED. KENTON     --to get all the way round, just once.  DANA     [filter]  Honey, I'll be flat out of range in two shakes.  I don't want to worry you none, but if anything happens out there, it could be days before help'll arrive. KENTON     Days?  But a lander would only‑‑ DANA     [filter]  Manpower and money, old son.  Base only has a dozen resident staff, and none of us is jungle-worthy.  We gotta wait for some of you roughnecks to wander on home, THEN the company has to pay fer their time fer a rescue.  Why d'you think they load you up with plenty of ammo?  Much cheaper.  KENTON     It's a wonder they bother. DANA     [filter]  [serious]  And death benefits.  KENTON     What? DANA     [filter]  They're cheaper, too. MUSIC   SCENE 19.     KENTON'S LOG AMBIANCE     LOG 5 KENTON     [filter, weak]  Horror and despair. Baffled again!  I had been deceived once more, and was apparently back where I had been on my first futile attempt to leave the labyrinth.  Whether I screamed aloud I do not know - perhaps I was too weak to utter a sound.  I merely lay dazed in the mud for a long period, while the greenish things outside leaped and laughed and gestured.   MUSIC   SCENE 20.     MINING BASE KENTON     Isn't this a lot of ammo?  I mean, seven clips-- DWIGHT     One a day - that's pretty average.  Save 'em for the trip home.  The lizzies don't usually try much right away - that is, until you got one of their precious crystals.  The worst you can expect before you make a find is pot-shots with blow-gun darts. KENTON     Blow-guns?  That's it? DWIGHT     Don't scoff.  One of those darts'll slice through your suit like butter.  All it needs to do is nick you and the local germs do the rest - if the insects don't get you first.  [beat]  If you don't get back to base in time...  Well, you noticed the bartender's hand? KENTON     [gulps]  The hook? DWIGHT     Um-hmm. MUSIC   SCENE 21.     KENTON'S LOG AMBIANCE     LOG 3 KENTON     [filter, normal]  Late afternoon, third day.  I have said that even from a great distance the shining object's position seems indefinably queer - a slight mound rising from the slime and mist.  Now - at about a hundred yards - I could see plainly just what that mound was.  It was the body of a man in one of the Company's protective suits, lying on his back, with his oxygen mask half buried in the mud a few inches away.  In his right hand, crushed convulsively against his chest, was the crystal which had led me here - a spheroid of incredible size, so large that the dead fingers could scarcely close over it.  I wondered who the man was. MUSIC   SCENE 22.     PLATEAU KENTON     Holy cow!  SOUND     THUMP ON WALL KENTON     Dwight?  SOUND     THUMPING ON WALL, HURRIED SPLISHING FOOTSTEPS KENTON     Oh, jeez. [SOUND: THUMP]  But the walls-- [SOUND: THUMP]  How could he--  [gasps]  Woah! SOUND     splash in the watery mud as he finds a gap. MUSIC   SCENE 23.     KENTON'S LOG AMBIANCE     LOG 3 KENTON     [filter, normal]  There was an opening about three feet wide.  Without a moment's hesitation I stepped through and advanced two paces to the prostrate body - which lay in what seemed to be an intersecting doorless corridor.  It gave me a fresh curiosity to find that the interior of this vast enclosure was divided by partitions... MUSIC   SCENE 24.     BAR SOUND     TIN CUP SET DOWN DWIGHT     [a bit drunk]  I hope I die out there.  SOUND     LIQUID POURS KENTON     You want to die? DWIGHT     No - don't WANT to, just that when I do, I hope it's out there.  In the jungle.  The scavengers'll strip me clean in a coupla hours and no one'll ever know what happened. MILLER     Just make sure you're dead first.  Some of them bugs don't wait. KENTON     Will they really--? MILLER     That's why the suits are made the way they are - like cellophane, but thicker.  No weave, no tiny holes for bugs to get in through. KENTON     But the suit doesn't cover everything--? DWIGHT     Ah, they don't like the breather.  Smells bad or something.  So your head is pretty safe... as long as you don't take it off. MUSIC   SCENE 25.     KENTON'S LOG AMBIANCE     LOG 3 KENTON     [filter, normal]  Looking about for some possible cause of death, my eyes lit upon the oxygen mask lying close to the body's feet.  Probably carelessly buckled, so the weight of the tubes worked the straps loose - wouldn't've happened with a Dubois sponge-reservoir mask.   MUSIC   SCENE 26.     PLATEAU KENTON     Well, Dwight, old buddy, you got your wish.  At least this baby won't go to waste.  [grunts]  Let go!  [grunts again]  Aha!  SOUND     a couple of squish-steps KENTON     Waitaminute.  Wait...  Rigor mortis, it... it doesn't last...  Manners, you there?  SOUND     crackle of radio KENTON     Recorder? RECORDER     Ready. KENTON     Rigor mortis. RECORDER     A condition of deceased flesh.  A spasming of muscles-- KENTON     How long does it last? SOUND     rustling, slapping noises far in background RECORDER     Rigor begins 3-7 hours after termination of life, and lasts approximately 12 hours. KENTON     Off.  Holy--!  Dwight... SOUND     rustling, slapping noises build KENTON     What in sam hill--?  [what the heck?] MUSIC   SCENE 27.     KENTON'S LOG AMBIANCE     LOG 3 KENTON     [filter, normal]  It was a group of a dozen or so of those detestable man-lizards emerging from the forest far off across the plain.  When they drew nearer they seemed less truly reptilian - only the flat head and the green, slimy, frog-like skin carrying out the idea.  They walked erect on odd, thick stumps, which made curious noises in the mud.  The motions of their tentacles - if the theories are right - indicated that the things were in animated conversation. MUSIC   SCENE 28.     PLATEAU DANA     [filter]  You asleep? KENTON     [bummed]  Would it matter? DANA     [filter]  You sound real down.  Tell mama Manners all about it.  You may not have a lot of time, though, there's some sunspot activity predicted for tonight, so I may have to miss a date or two-- but you can forgive a girl for that, can't you? KENTON     I--  I'm lost. DANA     [filter]  Nonsense.  You're nowhere near uncharted territory.  Just punch into the recorder-- KENTON     Oh, I know exactly where I am.  But I'm still lost. DANA     [filter, half joking]  Is this where I start telling you to back away quickly?  KENTON     The invisible wall?  Well, it's more like-- DANA     [filter]  Like what?  An invisible barn? KENTON     --An invisible ...maze.  I can see the entire plain from here, the trees are at the edges, the sky above, but I can't... get... out. DANA     [filter]  Have you tried taking every left fork?  That usually-- KENTON     There's something else.  I-- There's a crowd of the lizard-men just waiting at the entrance - ready to jump me if I manage to escape. DANA     [filter]  Two things-- KENTON     I need some help-- DANA     [filter, sadly]  Ain't gonna happen.  [crackle]  Not for a couple days.  Sunspots play havoc with landing vehicles, same as communications. KENTON     So I just-- DANA     [filter]  Listen to me Ken.  You've never tried shooting one of them things, have ya?  The flame guns are particularly nasty.  Them critters go up like oily rags.  Once you get one or two of 'em, the others'll head for the hills.  They don't really wanna fight-- DWIGHT     [filter, distant and echoey]  That is, until you got one of the precious crystals. KENTON     Oh.  [resolved]  No. DANA     [filter]  No?  No what? KENTON     I'm not giving it up. DANA     [filter]  That's the spirit, Ken.  Long as you're in a safe place, just sit tight, and we'll get a rescue party in, soon as possible. KENTON     [considering]  You mean other prospectors, right? DANA     [filter]  Yep.  KENTON     Maybe I will be out of here by then... MUSIC   SCENE 29.     KENTON'S LOG AMBIANCE     LOG 4 KENTON     [filter, tired]  Fourth day.  Shortly after dawn.  The alluring crystal, the body of the man who seized it before me - these have acquired a dark and threatening meaning.  Dwight was a victim, too.  He must have been trapped some time ago, and failed to find his way out.  His mask probably didn't slip accidentally.  Rather than face a lingering death he solved the issue by letting the lethal atmosphere do its work.  The horrible irony of his fate lay in his position - only a few feet from the exit he failed to find.  And now I'm as trapped as he'd been.  MUSIC   SCENE 30.     plateau KENTON     [tired, but not quite exhausted - yet] Recorder. RECORDER     [filter]  Ready. KENTON     Location - central chamber.  Describe? RECORDER     [filter]  Round chamber.  Six irregularly spaced egresses. KENTON     Progress? RECORDER     [filter]  You have 27 times attempted the exit you designated "door in line with corpse and tree". KENTON     Yeah, well...  Then I realized three of the doors all line up that way.  There's just not enough difference in perspective. RECORDER     [filter]  You have recorded 43 trips out of the central chamber.  KENTON     I know.  With no way to mark anything, I can't tell which door is which. RECORDER     [filter]  You have attempted to score the wall with your knife, and with your flame pistol.  You have tried to make a mark in ink, and smear it with mud.  You have reported no success. KENTON     Picking a damn door at random would do me more good. RECORDER     [filter]  Correlating the turns you have thus far recorded, a random choice would give you odds of 1 in-- KENTON     Off. MUSIC   SCENE 31.     KENTON'S LOG AMBIANCE     LOG 5 KENTON     [filter, weak]  This, then, is the end.  Three days, taking me nowhere.  My strength is gone.  It was no common series of mischances which made me lose my way in this roofless, unseen tangle of corridors.  Far from it.  Beyond doubt, the place is a genuine maze - a labyrinth - a trap set to catch humans.  MUSIC   SCENE 32.     PLATEAU KENTON     [weak, not on filter]  Hiya Dwight.  Hey, buddy. SOUND     weak pounding on wall, splishes of vague movement in the mud. KENTON     You got it all over me.  You almost made it, old pal.  Almost... SOUND     RUSTLING AND SPLISHING [Kenton takes out his recorder] KENTON     Recorder on. RECORDER     [filter]  Ready. SOUND     ALIEN NOISES GET LOUDER. KENTON     [weak]  I have just taken the great crystal out of my pouch to look at in my last moments.  It shines fiercely and menacingly in the red rays of the dying day.  The leaping horde have noticed it, and their g-gestures have changed in a way I cannot understand.  I am ... growing ... numb.   SOUND     ONE LAST LABORED EXHALE, MACHINE SLOWS, THEN A MOMENT OF SILENCE. MUSIC   SCENE 33.     GENERAL QUARTERS [NOTE:       Miller is dictating, not playing back, so he is NOT on a filter] MILLER     Operative A-49, Kenton J. Stanfield left Terra Nova early on six-twelve, for a short-term trip.  Due back 13th or 14th.  Did not appear by evening of 15th.  Followed last reported location to Erycinian Highland.  Brought plane down nearby and corner of the wing crashed on unseen obstruction.  Approaching on foot, we came up short against a smooth, invisible barrier.  Located skeleton of Operative B-9, Frederick N. Dwight of Koenig's division, and aforementioned deceased, Stanfield.  We had great difficulty in getting to Stanfield, but finally succeeded.  We shall bury Dwight and Stanfield in the company graveyard, and ship the crystal on the next-- SOUND     beep [phone].  MILLER     Off. SOUND     phone picked up. MILLER     Miller. DANA     [filter]  I heard-- MILLER     Yeah. DANA     [filter]  And I'm real sorry.  Boy seemed real nice-- MILLER     He was.  Keep it under your hat, but I think this is the last straw. DANA     [filter]  Last straw? MILLER     [sigh]  I have been warned.  The next rocket'll be carrying marines. DANA     [filter]  [shocked]  Oh.  Well.  I AM sorry. MILLER     Yeah. SOUND     HANGS up PHONE.  MILLER      Recorder on. SOUND     CLICK. RECORDER     [filter] Ready. MILLER     [sigh]  Personal note.  I am impressed not only with the irony of Dwight's fate, but with that of Stanfield as well.  We found a doorway some fifteen feet past Dwight.  Beyond this was a hall and ... oh, hell... Stanfield could have reached the outside by walking twenty-two feet if he had just found the opening directly behind him. MUSIC END

At one time, the state of California was known as the state which was populated by those seeking independence, freedom, and the opportunity to think differently. California grew to the largest state in the nation and at the same time has the fifth largest economy in the world, just behind Japan and ahead of the United Kingdom. Since the late 1990s when Democrat Gray Davis wrecked California with his progressive policies, California has fallen into a virtual ditch. Slightly recovering under the brief Governorship of Arnold Schwarzenneger, the state slipped into near dystopian dysfunction under the control of Gov. Jerry Brown and Gov. Gavin Newsom. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Larry Elder is running to become the next Governor of California, and with a Newsom recall, is likely to win. And thus, a once hard blue state, the largest blue state in America, could turn deep red. However, California also has one of the worst records of voter fraud of any state in the nation. If Larry Elder wins as Governor, California could quickly move so far to the conservative side that only Florida and South Carolina could be considered more conservative. An Elder win would mean that California, Texas, and Florida - the three most populous states in America - would have conservative leadership. On today's Public Occurrences, Michael O'Fallon calls on all conservatives to support Larry Elder and make California great again. https://sovereignnations.com Support Sovereign Nations: https://paypal.me/sovnations https://patreon.com/sovnations Follow Sovereign Nations: https://sovereignnations.com/subscribe https://facebook.com/SovereignNations https://twitter.com/SovNations https://youtube.com/SovereignNations https://instagram.com/sovnations/ https://minds.com/sovnations?referrer=sovnations https://parler.com/profile/sovnations Podcast: https://soundcloud.com/sovereignnations https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-causes-of-things/id1383339158?mt=2 https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL2ZlZWRzLnNvdW5kY2xvdWQuY29tL3VzZXJzL3NvdW5kY2xvdWQ6dXNlcnM6NDQ1NTczODAwL3NvdW5kcy5yc3M https://open.spotify.com/show/3mNCQcQAdawzIYAAuHfy8r https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/sovereign-nations/the-causes-of-things © 2021 Sovereign Nations. All rights reserved.

Here's what is happening in the markets today, Wednesday, August 25th:- Today Futures point to slightly higher start with Jackson Hole, Wyoming in the spotlight.- Dick's Sporting Goods (DKS) is up almost 2.0% pre-market after an earnings beat and $5.50 special dividend.- Express (EXPR) is up 6.0% pre-market after reporting an unexpected profit last quarter.- Urban Outfitters (URBN) is taking a hit pre-market, down almost 5.0%.- Nordstrom (JWN) tumbled 12.0% pre-market after an earnings beat. - Toll Brothers (TOL) is hammering out some pre-market gains, up 2.0% pre-market after better than expected earnings.- GameStop (GME) and AMC Entertainment (AMC) rocketed higher out of nowhere yesterday up 27.5% and 20.3% respectively. In pre-market trading GME is down -1.8% while AMC is up 3.0%.- Airbnb (ABNB) announced that it will temporarily house up to 20,000 Afghan refugees. ABNB jumped 10.0% yesterday and is down 1.0% in pre-market trading.- Peloton's (PTON) treadmill is going back on sale next week after a recall which was prompted by several injuries and one death.If you enjoyed the "Stock Market Today" episode, make sure to subscribe to this podcast. And for more stock market news,  visit https://rockwelltrading.com.#todaysstockmarket #stockmarkettoday #stockmarket

Today on the show, Ben and Nathan tackle another batch of personal statements. These are better than average but still not great. They all at least have a good foundation to work with. The guys deliver their constructive criticism—and offer up a bonanza of advice to anyone who wants to improve their personal statement or their writing in general. Read more on our website!

For episode 200 we're opening up recording night to ALL members of TTC Discord! No patreon subscription needed. Stab: Ampeg SCR-DI 00:14:29 Derek's first show since October 2019 is this weekend! Stab: EQ Hoof Reaper 00:19:53 Mythos Oracle Analog Delay $259 Stab: Montreal Assembly Count to Five 00:27:20 I got one! Inspired by Japanese echo pedals but isn't a direct clone of anything Super simple layout, time, feedback, mix. 600ms, but tap tempo lets you go longer! External tap jack Fender Cory Wong Stratocaster Stab: Boss DC-2w 00:37:14 If you don't know Cory Wong, you're blowing it. Slightly redesigned body and headstock! I can't believe Fender let him do that. Seymour Duncan Cory Wong “Clean Machine” pickups. Two single coils and a stacked bridge pickup. Modern D shape neck with a compound radius fingerboard 10-14” Satin Sapphire Blue lacquer finish Locking tuners Standard 5 way blade switch but the second tone pot is push/push to go immediately to 4th position (neck/middle) $2000 Pedal Genie 00:49:24 Walrus Audio Bellweather reverb link because I think it's discontinued! Electro-Harmonix Bass Soul Food - what the fuck?... $108.90 Suggestions of the week: Stab: Beetronix OctaHive 01:15:48 Shut Up and Sit Down youtube channel Patreon Carson Ricketts Nick Greenwood Timmy S. Matthew Fenselau (pronounced fence-law) Riesenwolf! Jamie Evans Jeffrey Wright Doug King Doug Gann Righteous Ryan Johnson Steve Huffman Jonas Sabatini Eric Girabaldi Andrew Walsh from Andrew's Alcove OG Friend of the show Brian Rizzi Doug Christ of Thirty7 FX Sean Wright of Lollygagger FX Brian Gower and Kyle McIntyre of The Tone Jerks Podcast --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thetonecontrol/message

Submit your questions for Julie Anne Long by visiting bit.ly/jalquestions! Submissions open until 8/27/21!Grab your copy of the book we read today,  A Duke a Dozen by Shana Galen, here!Want to listen to a certain segment? Here is our outline this week:0:00 - 08:51: Intro/Author Facts/History Fact08:51 - 23:13: Synopsis23:13 - 26:19: Parlour26:19 - 1:12:17: General Book DiscussionThe article we cited for our history fact today can be found at: https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/medicine/victorian-mental-asylum Subscribe to our email list to learn what we're reading next month, for fun extras, and more!Follow us on Instagram @tnstrumpetsFollow us on Twitter @tnstrumpetsFind us on Facebook facebook.com/tnstrumpetsAnd subscribe to us on YouTube!And pick up a copy of next week's book, Slightly something by Mary Balough, here!

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In this episode of Moms Out Loud, Alexa & Rachael share some of their unpopular opinions. Slightly spicy, slightly light hearted.

Today is Friday, August 13, 2021. Here's a look at the top headlines from around the Northland. The Duluth News Tribune Minute is a product of Forum Communications Company and is brought to you by reporters at the Duluth News Tribune, Superior Telegram and Cloquet Pine Journal. Find more news throughout the day at duluthnewstribune.com.

This is different from any other I've done because 1) it's Prosecco-fuelled and I've never hosted a podcast while tipsy 2) it's with one of my best mates, Eva Long, so there are no holds barred. In editing I was tempted to cut out the bits where I sound a bit ranty and, well, a bit of a dick. But I've kept it all in because my intentions are good: I'm trying to be as honest as I can about the complexity of (female) friendships and what sometimes gets in the way of supporting each other put ourselves out there. Eva is rocking putting herself out there lately (with the inspiration of this podcast, I'm happy to add!). She wrote a song to save the hedgehogs, which she set to music and ended up performing it on the main stage of a music festival. She's also just about to launch an innovative property business with TV presenter Charles Hanson (Antiques Road Show, Bargain Hunt). Eva is a naturally creative person in how she lives her life, which I learn from this conversation is something she has inherited from her parents, despite their best efforts to push her into more 'sensible' pursuits. But, as she says, creativity is innate and she's much happier when expressing hers, whether that's in Tango dancing or gardening or cooking or renovating houses. In this podcast she talks about the power of creativity to help her both find, and lose, herself in a busy family life. NB: Eva wants to clarify that her Greek family helped the Cretan resistance For more about Eva and saving hedgehogs: Instagram: @eva.r.long Eva will soon be launching a historic buildings property business with TV presenter Charles Hanson (www.charleshanson.com) called Hanson Rose. Why not help spread the word and raise awareness of the worrying plight of hedgehogs? Download the attached PDF so you, too, can learn Eva's Hedgehog song and perform it yourself! She is currently adapting the story of Lemmy the Hedgehog into a play for primary schools to use free in return for a donation to hedgehogstreet.org.  To donate to save the hedgehogs: https://donate.ptes.org/hedgehog/HHINdexCC.aspx  To follow Big Juicy Creative for loads of inspiration on living creatively, see: Instagram: @bigjuicycreativeliving Facebook @bigjuicycreativeliving LinkedIn: @suzybashford Twitter: @suzybashford  Contact Suzy: suzy@bigjuicycreative.co.uk Big Juicy Creative podcast is available on all major platforms, or directly from my website: https://www.bigjuicycreative.co.uk/podcast

https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/eight-hundred-slightly-poisoned-word Support the author on Substack: astralcodexten.substack.com Then support the podcast: www.patreon.com/sscpodcast   In 2012, a Berkeley team found that indoor carbon dioxide had dramatic negative effects on cognition (paper, popular article). Subjects in poorly ventilated environments did up to 50% worse on a test of reasoning and decision-making. This is potentially pretty important, because lots of office buildings (and private houses) count as poorly-ventilated environments, so a lot of decision-making might be happening while severely impaired. Since then people have debated this on and off, with some studies confirming the effect and others failing to find it. I personally am skeptical, partly because the effect is so big I would expect someone to have noticed, but also because submarines, spaceships, etc have orders of magnitude more carbon dioxide than any civilian environment, but people still seem to do pretty hard work in them pretty effectively. As part of my continuing effort to test this theory in my own life, I played a word game eight hundred times under varying ventilation conditions. …okay, fine, no, I admit it, I played a word game eight hundred times because I'm addicted to it. But since I was playing the word game eight hundred times anyway, I varied the ventilation conditions to see what would happen. The game was WordTwist, which you can find here (warning: potentially addictive). You get a 5x5 square of letters and you have to find as many words as possible (of four letters or more) within three minutes. You can move up, down, right, left, or diagonal, and get more points for harder words. A typical board looks like this:

Hour 2 of A&G features coverage of the TX Dems, Jack reviews Space Jam 2, a talk show host makes a bold prediction(!!), Jack's house is tagged with graffiti and more! Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com