Podcasts about Smithsonian Channel

Decades after a band of British colonists in the new world gained independence from the Crown, a funny thing happened: wealthy American women began returning to the ancestral homeland to find impoverished but titled Englishmen needing wives - and cash. It was a match - actually, hundreds of them - made in heaven.Jeanette "Jennie" Jerome was an American daughter of a banker and a landowner, as well as being a noted beauty of her era. In 1874, at the age of just 20, Jennie married Lord Randolph Churchill - the two would produce another notable Churchill - and began a fascinating period of decades that saw her involvement and influence in the highest level of British politics and society.Sources:The Titled Americans: Three American Sisters and British Aristocratic World into Which They Married, by Elizabeth Kehoe (Amazon link)Jennie Churchill: Winston's American Mother, by Anne Sebba (Amazon link)The Husband Hunters: Social Climbing in London and New York, by Anne de Courcy (Amazon link)International Churchill Society (winstonchurchill.org)Million Dollar American Princesses, Smithsonian Channel documentary (smithsonianchannel.com)See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode of Visual Intonation, we step into the world of East London–based director and senior producer Effie Theos, a creative force whose work flows between commercials, branded films, docudramas, and emotionally charged short stories. Effie brings a cinematic sensibility to every frame she touches, shaping narratives that feel both intimate and epic. Her approach celebrates human connection while exploring the layered intersections of culture, identity, and memory.Effie calls herself a “griot director,” a modern storyteller carrying traditions of spoken history into the visual age. Through her camera, the past and present intertwine, as seen in her hauntingly beautiful New York fashion film about two ex-lovers revisiting the cityscape of a love once lived. Her work often transforms everyday emotion into poetry, a reflection of her belief that truth and art are inseparable.From her early days producing music programs in Sydney to leading high-profile campaigns for Louis Vuitton, Nike, Ralph Lauren, and Google, Effie's path has been defined by versatility and courage. She has collaborated with creative giants like BBC, Ogilvy, Smithsonian Channel, and Pulse Films, proving her ability to balance artistry with precision. Each project reveals her gift for marrying visual rhythm with emotional depth, a kind of musicality that turns moving images into symphonies.Now developing a short film and a reality TV pilot, Effie Theos stands as both artist and survivor, shaping stories that challenge the familiar and dare audiences to feel more deeply. Tune in as Visual Intonation explores her journey, her process, and the pulse of her cinematic soul.https://effierosetheos.com/Source: InstagramEffie Theos (@effierosetheos) • Instagram photos and videosSupport the showVisual Intonation Website: https://www.visualintonations.com/Visual Intonation Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/visualintonation/Vante Gregory's Website: vantegregory.comVante Gregory's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/directedbyvante/ To support me on Patreon (thank you): patreon.com/visualintonations Tiktok: www.tiktok.com/@visualintonation Tiktok: www.tiktok.com/@directedbyvante

What does it take to keep your voice—and your purpose—strong through every season of life? In this episode of Unstoppable Mindset, I sit down with my friend Bill Ratner, one of Hollywood's most recognized voice actors, best known as Flint from GI Joe. Bill's voice has carried him through radio, animation, and narration, but what stands out most is how he's used that same voice to serve others through storytelling, teaching, and grief counseling. Together, we explore the heart behind his work—from bringing animated heroes to life to standing on The Moth stage and helping people find healing through poetry. Bill shares lessons from his own journey, including losing both parents early, finding family in unexpected places, and discovering how creative expression can rebuild what life breaks down. We also reflect on 9/11, preparedness, and the quiet confidence that comes from trusting your training—whether you're a first responder, a performer, or just navigating the unknown. This conversation isn't just about performance; it's about presence. It's about using your story, your craft, and your compassion to keep moving forward—unstoppable, one voice at a time. Highlights: 00:31 – Hear the Flint voice and what it takes to bring animated characters to life. 06:57 – Learn why an uneven college path still led to a lifelong acting career. 11:50 – Understand how GI Joe became a team and a toy phenomenon that shaped culture. 15:58 – See how comics and cartoons boosted classroom literacy when used well. 17:06 – Pick up simple ways parents can spark reading through shared stories. 19:29 – Discover how early, honest conversations about death can model resilience. 24:09 – Learn to critique ads and media like a pro to sharpen your own performance. 36:19 – Follow the pivot from radio to voiceover and why specialization pays. 47:48 – Hear practical editing approaches and accessible tools that keep shows tight. 49:38 – Learn how The Moth builds storytelling chops through timed, judged practice. 55:21 – See how poetry—and poetry therapy—support grief work with students. 59:39 – Take notes on memoir writing, emotional management, and one-person shows. About the Guest: Bill Ratner is one of America's best known voice actors and author of poetry collections Lamenting While Doing Laps in the Lake (Slow Lightning Lit 2024,) Fear of Fish (Alien Buddha Press 2021,) To Decorate a Casket (Finishing Line Press 2021,) and the non-fiction book Parenting For The Digital Age: The Truth Behind Media's Effect On Children and What To Do About It (Familius Books 2014.) He is a 9-time winner of the Moth StorySLAM, 2-time winner of Best of The Hollywood Fringe Extension Award for Solo Performance, Best of the Net Poetry Nominee 2023 (Lascaux Review,) and New Millennium "America One Year From Now" Writing Award Finalist. His writing appears in Best Small Fictions 2021 (Sonder Press,) Missouri Review (audio,) Baltimore Review, Chiron Review, Feminine Collective, and other journals. He is the voice of "Flint" in the TV cartoon G.I. Joe, "Donnell Udina" in the computer game Mass Effect, the voice of Air Disasters on Smithsonian Channel, NewsNation, and network TV affiliates across the country. He is a committee chair for his union, SAG-AFTRA, teaches Voiceovers for SAG-AFTRA Foundation, Media Awareness for Los Angeles Unified School District, and is a trained grief counsellor. Member: Actors Equity Association, Screen Actors Guild-AFTRA, National Storytelling Network • https://billratner.com • @billratner Ways to connect with Bill: https://soundcloud.com/bill-ratner https://www.instagram.com/billratner/ https://twitter.com/billratner https://www.threads.net/@billratner https://billratner.tumblr.com https://www.youtube.com/@billratner/videos https://www.facebook.com/billratner.voiceover.author https://bsky.app/profile/bilorat.bsky.social About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog. Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards. https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/ accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/ Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset . Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. Transcription Notes: Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:21 Well on a gracious hello to you, wherever you may be, I am your host. Mike hingson, and you are listening to unstoppable mindset. Today, we get to have a voice actor, person, Bill Ratner, who you want to know who Bill Radnor is, go back and watch the old GI Joe cartoons and listen to the voice of Flint.   Bill Ratner ** 01:42 All right. Lady Jay, you better get your battle gear on, because Cobra is on their way. And I can't bring up the Lacher threat weapon system. We got to get out of here. Yo, Joe,   Michael Hingson ** 01:52 there you go. I rest my case Well, Bill, welcome to unstoppable mindset.   Bill Ratner ** 02:00 We can't rest now. Michael, we've just begun. No, we've just begun.   Michael Hingson ** 02:04 We got to keep going here. Well, I'm really glad that you're here. Bill is another person who we inveigled to get on unstoppable mindset with the help of Walden Hughes. And so that means we can talk about Walden all we want today. Bill just saying, oh goodness. And I got a lot to say. Let me tell you perfect, perfect. Bring it on. So we are really grateful to Walden, although I hope he's not listening. We don't want to give him a big head. But no, seriously, we're really grateful. Ah, good point.   Bill Ratner ** 02:38 But his posture, oddly enough, is perfect.   Michael Hingson ** 02:40 Well, there you go. What do you do? He practiced. Well, anyway, we're glad you're here. Tell us about the early bill, growing up and all that stuff. It's always fun to start a good beginning.   Bill Ratner ** 02:54 Well, I was a very lucky little boy. I was born in Des Moines, Iowa in 1947 to two lovely people, professionals, both with master's degree out at University of Chicago. My mother was a social worker. My father had an MBA in business. He was managing editor of Better Homes and Gardens magazine. So I had the joy of living in a better home and living in a garden.   Michael Hingson ** 03:21 My mother. How long were you in Des Moines?   Bill Ratner ** 03:24 Five and a half years left before my sixth birthday. My dad got a fancy job at an ad agency in Minneapolis, and had a big brother named Pete and big handsome, curly haired boy with green eyes. And moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, and was was brought up there.   Michael Hingson ** 03:45 Wow. So you went to school there and and chased the girls and all that stuff.   Bill Ratner ** 03:54 I went to school there at Blake School for Boys in Hopkins, Minnesota. Couldn't chase the girls day school, but the girls we are allowed to dance with certainly not chase. Michael was at woodhue dancing school, the Northrop girls from Northrop girls school and the Blake boys were put together in eighth grade and taught the Cha Cha Cha, the waltz, the Charleston, and we danced together, and the girls wore white gloves, and we sniffed their perfume, and we all learned how to be lovers when we were 45   Michael Hingson ** 04:37 There you are. Well, as long as you learned at some point, that's a good start.   Bill Ratner ** 04:44 It's a weird generation. Michael,   Michael Hingson ** 04:46 I've been to Des Moines before. I was born in Chicago, but moved out to California when I was five, but I did some work with the National Federation of the Blind in the mid 19. 1970s 1976 into 1978 so spent time at the Iowa Commission for the Blind in Des Moines, which became a top agency for the Blind in well, the late 50s into the to the 60s and so on. So   Bill Ratner ** 05:15 both my parents are from Chicago. My father from the south side of Chicago, 44th and Kenzie, which was a Irish, Polish, Italian, Jewish, Ukrainian neighborhood. And my mother from Glencoe, which was a middle class suburb above Northwestern University in Evanston.   Michael Hingson ** 05:34 I Where were you born? 57th and union, north, south side, no, South   Bill Ratner ** 05:42 57th union is that? Is that west of Kenzie?   Michael Hingson ** 05:46 You know, I don't remember the geography well enough to know, but I know that it was, I think, Mount Sinai Hospital where I was born. But it was, it's, it's, it's a pretty tough neighborhood today. So I understand,   Bill Ratner ** 06:00 yeah, yeah, my it was tough, then it's tough now,   Michael Hingson ** 06:03 yeah, I think it's tougher, supposedly, than it was. But we lived there for five years, and then we we moved to California, and I remember some things about Chicago. I remember walking down to the local candy store most days, and had no problem doing that. My parents were told they should shut me away at a home somewhere, because no blind child could ever grow up to amount to anything. And my parents said, You guys are you're totally wrong. And they brought me up with that attitude. So, you   Bill Ratner ** 06:32 know who said that the school says school so that   Michael Hingson ** 06:35 doctors doctors when they discovered I was blind with the   Bill Ratner ** 06:38 kid, goodness gracious, horrified.   Michael Hingson ** 06:44 Well, my parents said absolutely not, and they brought me up, and they actually worked with other parents of premature kids who became blind, and when kindergarten started in for us in in the age of four, they actually had a special kindergarten class for blind kids at the Perry School, which is where I went. And so I did that for a year, learn braille and some other things. Then we moved to California, but yeah, and I go back to Chicago every so often. And when I do nowadays, they I one of my favorite places to migrate in Chicago is Garrett Popcorn.   Bill Ratner ** 07:21 Ah, yes, with caramel corn, regular corn, the   Michael Hingson ** 07:25 Chicago blend, which is a mixture, yeah, the Chicago blend is cheese corn, well, as it is with caramel corn, and they put much other mozzarella on it as well. It's really good.   Bill Ratner ** 07:39 Yeah, so we're on the air. Michael, what do you call your what do you call your program? Here I am your new friend, and I can't even announce your program because I don't know   Michael Hingson ** 07:48 the name, unstoppable mindset. This   Bill Ratner ** 07:51 is unstoppable mindset.   Michael Hingson ** 07:56 We're back. Well, we're back already. We're fast. So you, you, you moved off elsewhere, out of Des Moines and all that. And where did you go to college?   Bill Ratner ** 08:09 Well, this is like, why did you this is, this is a bit like talking about the Vietnam War. Looking back on my college career is like looking back on the Vietnam War series, a series of delusions and defeats. By the time I the time i for college, by the time I was applying for college, I was an orphan, orphan, having been born to fabulous parents who died too young of natural causes. So my grades in high school were my mediocre. I couldn't get into the Ivy Leagues. I got into the big 10 schools. My stepmother said, you're going to Michigan State in East Lansing because your cousin Eddie became a successful realtor. And Michigan State was known as mu u it was the most successful, largest agriculture college and university in the country. Kids from South Asia, China, Northern Europe, Southern Europe, South America all over the world came to Michigan State to study agricultural sciences, children of rich farmers all over the world and middle class farmers all over the world, and a huge police science department. Part of the campus was fenced off, and the young cadets, 1819, 20 years old, would practice on the rest of the student body, uniformed with hats and all right, excuse me, young man, we're just going to get some pizza at eight o'clock on Friday night. Stand against your car. Hands in your car. I said, Are you guys practicing again? Shut up and spread your legs. So that was that was Michigan State, and even though both my parents had master's degrees, I just found all the diversions available in the 1960s to be too interesting, and was not invited. Return after my sophomore year, and in order to flunk out of a big 10 University, and they're fine universities, all of them, you have to be either really determined or not so smart, not really capable of doing that level of study in undergraduate school. And I'd like to think that I was determined. I used to show up for my exams with a little blue book, and the only thing I would write is due to lack of knowledge, I am unable to complete this exam, sign Bill ranter and get up early and hand it in and go off. And so what was, what was left for a young man like that was the theater I'd seen the great Zero Mostel when I was 14 years old and on stage live, he looked just like my father, and he was funny, and if I Were a rich man, and that's the grade zero must tell. Yeah, and it took about five, no, it took about six, seven years to percolate inside my bread and my brain. In high school, I didn't want to do theater. The cheerleaders and guys who I had didn't happen to be friends with or doing theater. I took my girlfriends to see plays, but when I was 21 I started acting, and I've been an actor ever since. I'm a committee chair on the screen actors guild in Hollywood and Screen Actors Guild AFTRA, and work as a voice actor and collect my pensions and God bless the union.   Michael Hingson ** 11:44 Well, hey, as long as it works and you're making progress, you know you're still with it, right?   Bill Ratner ** 11:53 That's the that's the point. There's no accounting for taste in my business. Michael, you work for a few different broadcast entities at my age. And it's, you know, it's younger people. It's 18 to 3418 years to 34 years old is the ideal demographic for advertisers, Ford, Motor Company, Dove soap, Betty, Crocker, cake mixes and cereals, every conceivable product that sold online or sold on television and radio. This is my this is my meat, and I don't work for religion. However, if a religious organization calls, I call and say, I I'm not, not qualified or not have my divinity degree in order to sell your church to the public?   Michael Hingson ** 12:46 Yeah, yeah. Well, I, I can understand that. But you, you obviously do a lot, and as we talked about, you were Flint and GI Joe, which is kind of cool.   Bill Ratner ** 13:01 Flynn GI Joe was very cool. Hasbro Corporation, which was based in Providence, Rhode Island, had a huge success with GI Joe, the figure. The figure was about 11 and a half inches tall, like a Barbie, and was at first, was introduced to the public after the Korean War. There is a comic book that was that was also published about GI Joe. He was an individual figure. He was a figure, a sort of mythic cartoon figure during World War Two, GI Joe, generic American soldier, fighting man and but the Vietnam war dragged on for a long time, and the American buying public or buying kids toys got tired of GI Joe, got tired of a military figure in their household and stopped buying. And when Nixon ended the Vietnam War, or allotted to finish in 1974 Hasbro was in the tank. It's got its stock was cheap, and executives are getting nervous. And then came the Great George Lucas in Star Wars, who shrank all these action figures down from 11 and a half inches to three and a half inches, and went to China and had Chinese game and toy makers make Star Wars toys, and began to earn billions and billions dollars. And so Hasbro said, let's turn GI Joe into into a team. And the team began with flint and Lady J and Scarlett and Duke and Destro and cover commander, and grew to 85 different characters, because Hasbro and the toy maker partners could create 85 different sets of toys and action figures. So I was actor in this show and had a good time, and also a purveyor of a billion dollar industry of American toys. And the good news about these toys is I was at a conference where we signed autographs the voice actors, and we have supper with fans and so on. And I was sitting next to a 30 year old kid and his parents. And this kid was so knowledgeable about pop culture and every conceivable children's show and animated show that had ever been on the screen or on television. I turned to his mother and sort of being a wise acre, said, So ma'am, how do you feel about your 30 year old still playing with GI Joe action figures? And she said, Well, he and I both teach English in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania school system, and last year, the literacy level of my ninth graders was 50% 50% of those kids could not read in ninth grade. So I asked the principal if I could borrow my son's GI Joe, action figures, comic books and VHS tapes, recordings of the shows from TV. And he said, Sure, whatever you want to try. And so she did, and she played the video tapes, and these kids were thrilled. They'd never seen a GI Joe cartoon in class before. Passed out the comic books, let him read comics. And then she said, Okay, you guys. And passed out notebooks and pens and pencils, and said, I want you guys to make up some some shows, some GI Joe shows. And so they said, Yeah, we're ready. All right, Cobra, you better get into the barber shop, because the barber bill is no longer there and the fire engines are in the way. And wait a minute, there's a dog in the street. And so they're making this up, using their imagination, doing their schoolwork, by coming up with scenarios, imaginary fam fan fiction for GI Joe and she raised the literacy level in her classroom by 50% that year, by the end of that year, so, so that was the only story that I've ever heard about the sort of the efficacy of GI Joe, other than, you know, kids play with them. Do they? Are they shooting each other all the time? I certainly hope not. I hope not. Are they using the action figures? Do they strip their guns off and put them in a little, you know, stub over by the side and and have them do physical battle with each other, or have them hump the woods, or have them climb the stairs, or have them search the trees. Who knows what kids do? Same with same with girls and and Barbies. Barbie has been a source of fun and creativity for lots of girls, and the source of of worry and bother to a lot of parents as   Michael Hingson ** 17:54 well. Well, at the same time, though, when kids start to react and relate to some of these things. It's, it's pretty cool. I mean, look what's happened with the whole Harry Potter movement and craze. Harry Potter has probably done more in the last 20 or 25 years to promote reading for kids than most anything else, and   Bill Ratner ** 18:17 that's because it's such a good series of books. I read them to my daughters, yeah. And the quality of writing. She was a brilliant writer, not only just the stories and the storytelling, which is fun to watch in the movies, and you know, it's great for a parent to read. If there are any parents listening, I don't care how old your kids are. I don't care if they're 15. Offer to read to them. The 15 year old might, of course, say mom, but anybody younger than that might say either, all right, fine, which is, which means you better do it or read, read a book. To me, sure, it's fun for the parent, fun for the kid, and it makes the child a completely different kind of thinker and worker and earner.   Michael Hingson ** 19:05 Well, also the people who they got to read the books for the recordings Stephen Fry and in the US here, Jim Dale did such an incredible job as well. I've, I've read the whole Harry Potter series more than once, because I just enjoy them, and I enjoy listening to the the voices. They do such a good job. Yeah. And of course, for me, one of the interesting stories that I know about Jim Dale reading Harry Potter was since it was published by Scholastic he was actually scheduled to do a reading from one of the Harry from the new Harry Potter book that was coming out in 2001 on September 11, he was going to be at Scholastic reading. And of course, that didn't happen because of of everything that did occur. So I don't know whether I'm. I'm assuming at some point a little bit later, he did, but still he was scheduled to be there and read. But it they are there. They've done so much to help promote reading, and a lot of those kinds of cartoons and so on. Have done some of that, which is, which is pretty good. So it's good to, you know, to see that continue to happen. Well, so you've written several books on poetry and so on, and I know that you you've mentioned more than once grief and loss. How come those words keep coming up?   Bill Ratner ** 20:40 Well, I had an unusual childhood. Again. I mentioned earlier how, what a lucky kid I was. My parents were happy, educated, good people, not abusers. You know, I don't have a I don't have horror stories to tell about my mother or my father, until my mother grew sick with breast cancer and and it took about a year and a half or two years to die when I was seven years old. The good news is, because she was a sensitive, educated social worker, as she was actually dying, she arranged a death counseling session with me and my older brother and the Unitarian minister who was also a death counselor, and whom she was seeing to talk about, you know, what it was like to be dying of breast cancer with two young kids. And at this session, which was sort of surprised me, I was second grade, came home from school. In the living room was my mother and my brother looking a little nervous, and Dr Carl storm from the Unitarian Church, and she said, you know, Dr storm from church, but he's also my therapist. And we talk about my illness and how I feel, and we talk about how much I love you boys, and talk about how I worry about Daddy. And this is what one does when one is in crisis. That was a moment that was not traumatic for me. It's a moment I recalled hundreds of times, and one that has been a guiding light through my life. My mother's death was very difficult for my older brother, who was 13 who grew up in World War Two without without my father, it was just him and my mother when he was off in the Pacific fighting in World War Two. And then I was born after the war. And the loss of a mother in a family is like the bottom dropping out of a family. But luckily, my dad met a woman he worked with a highly placed advertising executive, which was unusual for a female in the 1950s and she became our stepmother a year later, and we had some very lovely, warm family years with her extended family and our extended family and all of us together until my brother got sick, came down with kidney disease a couple of years before kidney dialysis was invented, and a couple of years before kidney transplants were done, died at 19. Had been the captain of the swimming team at our high school, but did a year in college out in California and died on Halloween of 1960 my father was 51 years old. His eldest son had died. He had lost his wife six years earlier. He was working too hard in the advertising industry, successful man and dropped out of a heart attack 14th birthday. Gosh, I found him unconscious on the floor of our master bathroom in our house. So my life changed. I My life has taught me many, many things. It's taught me how the defense system works in trauma. It's taught me the resilience of a child. It's taught me the kindness of strangers. It's taught me the sadness of loss.   Michael Hingson ** 24:09 Well, you, you seem to come through all of it pretty well. Well, thank you. A question behind that, just an observation, but, but you do seem to, you know, obviously, cope with all of it and do pretty well. So you, you've always liked to be involved in acting and so on. How did you actually end up deciding to be a voice actor?   Bill Ratner ** 24:39 Well, my dad, after he was managing editor of Better Homes and Gardens magazine in Des Moines for Meredith publishing, got offered a fancy job as executive vice president of the flower and mix division for Campbell within advertising and later at General Mills Corporation. From Betty Crocker brand, and would bring me to work all the time, and would sit with me, and we'd watch the wonderful old westerns that were on prime time television, rawhide and Gunsmoke and the Virginian and sure   Michael Hingson ** 25:15 and all those. Yeah, during   Bill Ratner ** 25:17 the commercials, my father would make fun of the commercials. Oh, look at that guy. And number one, son, that's lousy acting. Number two, listen to that copy. It's the dumbest ad copy I've ever seen. The jingles and and then he would say, No, that's a good commercial, right there. And he wasn't always negative. He would he was just a good critic of advertising. So at a very young age, starting, you know, when we watch television, I think the first television ever, he bought us when I was five years old, I was around one of the most educated, active, funny, animated television critics I could hope to have in my life as a 56789, 1011, 12 year old. And so when I was 12, I became one of the founding members of the Brotherhood of radio stations with my friends John Waterhouse and John Barstow and Steve gray and Bill Connors in South Minneapolis. I named my five watt night kit am transmitter after my sixth grade teacher, Bob close this is wclo stereo radio. And when I was in sixth grade, I built myself a switch box, and I had a turntable and I had an intercom, and I wired my house for sound, as did all the other boys in the in the B, O, R, S, and that's brotherhood of radio stations. And we were guests on each other's shows, and we were obsessed, and we would go to the shopping malls whenever a local DJ was making an appearance and torture him and ask him dumb questions and listen obsessively to American am radio. And at the time for am radio, not FM like today, or internet on your little radio tuner, all the big old grandma and grandpa radios, the wooden ones, were AM, for amplitude modulated. You could get stations at night, once the sun went down and the later it got, the ionosphere would lift and the am radio signals would bounce higher and farther. And in Minneapolis, at age six and seven, I was able to to listen to stations out of Mexico and Texas and Chicago, and was absolutely fascinated with with what was being put out. And I would, I would switch my brother when I was about eight years old, gave me a transistor radio, which I hid under my bed covers. And at night, would turn on and listen for, who knows, hours at a time, and just tuning the dial and tuning the dial from country to rock and roll to hit parade to news to commercials to to agric agriculture reports to cow crossings in Kansas and grain harvesting and cheese making in Wisconsin, and on and on and on that made up the great medium of radio that was handing its power and its business over to television, just as I was growing As a child. Fast, fascinating transition   Michael Hingson ** 28:18 and well, but as it was transitioning, how did that affect you?   Bill Ratner ** 28:26 It made television the romantic, exciting, dynamic medium. It made radio seem a little limited and antiquated, and although I listened for environment and wasn't able to drag a television set under my covers. Yeah, and television became memorable with with everything from actual world war two battle footage being shown because there wasn't enough programming to 1930s Warner Brothers gangster movies with James Cagney, Edward G   Michael Hingson ** 29:01 Robinson and yeah   Bill Ratner ** 29:02 to all the sitcoms, Leave It to Beaver and television cartoons and on and on and on. And the most memorable elements to me were the personalities, and some of whom were invisible. Five years old, I was watching a Kids program after school, after kindergarten. We'll be back with more funny puppets, marionettes after this message and the first words that came on from an invisible voice of this D baritone voice, this commercial message will be 60 seconds long, Chrysler Dodge for 1954 blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I watched hypnotized, hypnotized as a 1953 dodge drove across the screen with a happy family of four waving out the window. And at the end of the commercial, I ran into the kitchen said, Mom, mom, I know what a minute. Is, and it was said, it had suddenly come into my brain in one of those very rare and memorable moments in a person's life where your brain actually speaks to you in its own private language and says, Here is something very new and very true, that 60 seconds is in fact a minute. When someone says, See you in five minutes, they mean five times that, five times as long as that. Chrysler commercial, five times 60. That's 300 seconds. And she said, Did you learn it that that on T in kindergarten? And I said, No, I learned it from kangaroo Bob on TV, his announcer, oh, kangaroo Bob, no, but this guy was invisible. And so at five years of age, I was aware of the existence of the practice of the sound, of the magic of the seemingly unlimited access to facts, figures, products, brand names that these voices had and would say on the air in This sort of majestic, patriarchal way,   Michael Hingson ** 31:21 and just think 20 years later, then you had James Earl Jones,   Bill Ratner ** 31:26 the great dame. James Earl Jones, father was a star on stage at that time the 1950s James Earl Jones came of age in the 60s and became Broadway and off Broadway star.   Michael Hingson ** 31:38 I got to see him in Othello. He was playing Othello. What a powerful performance. It was   Bill Ratner ** 31:43 wonderful performer. Yeah, yeah. I got to see him as Big Daddy in Canada, Hot Tin Roof, ah, live and in person, he got front row seats for me and my family.   Michael Hingson ** 31:53 Yeah, we weren't in the front row, but we saw it. We saw it on on Broadway,   Bill Ratner ** 31:58 the closest I ever got to James Earl Jones. He and I had the same voice over agent, woman named Rita vinari of southern Barth and benare company. And I came into the agency to audition for Doritos, and I hear this magnificent voice coming from behind a closed voiceover booth, saying, with a with a Spanish accent, Doritos. I thought that's James Earl Jones. Why is he saying burritos? And he came out, and he bowed to me, nodded and smiled, and I said, hello and and the agent probably in the booth and shut the door. And she said, I said, that was James Earl Jones. What a voice. What she said, Oh, he's such a nice man. And she said, but I couldn't. I was too embarrassed. I was too afraid to stop him from saying, Doritos. And it turns out he didn't get the gig. So it is some other voice actor got it because he didn't say, had he said Doritos with the agent froze it froze up. That was as close as I ever got to did you get the gig? Oh goodness no,   Michael Hingson ** 33:01 no, you didn't, huh? Oh, well, well, yeah. I mean, it was a very, it was, it was wonderful. It was James Earl Jones and Christopher Plummer played Iago. Oh, goodness, oh, I know. What a what a combination. Well, so you, you did a lot of voiceover stuff. What did you do regarding radio moving forward? Or did you just go completely out of that and you were in TV? Or did you have any opportunity   Bill Ratner ** 33:33 for me to go back at age 15, my brother and father, who were big supporters of my radio. My dad would read my W, C, l, o, newsletter and need an initial, an excellent journalism son and my brother would bring his teenage friends up. He'd play the elderly brothers, man, you got an Elvis record, and I did. And you know, they were, they were big supporters for me as a 13 year old, but when I turned 14, and had lost my brother and my father, I lost my enthusiasm and put all of my radio equipment in a box intended to play with it later. Never, ever, ever did again. And when I was about 30 years old and I'd done years of acting in the theater, having a great time doing fun plays and small theaters in Minneapolis and South Dakota and and Oakland, California and San Francisco. I needed money, so I looked in the want ads and saw a job for telephone sales, and I thought, Well, I used to love the telephone. I used to make phony phone calls to people all the time. Used to call funeral homes. Hi Carson, funeral I help you. Yes, I'm calling to tell you that you have a you have a dark green slate tile. Roof, isn't that correct? Yes. Well, there's, there's a corpse on your roof. Lady for goodness sake, bring it down and we laugh and we record it and and so I thought, Well, gee, I used to have a lot of fun with the phone. And so I called the number of telephone sales and got hired to sell magazine subscriptions and dinner tickets to Union dinners and all kinds of things. And then I saw a new job at a radio station, suburban radio station out in Walnut Creek, California, a lovely Metro BART train ride. And so I got on the BART train, rode out there and walked in for the interview, and was told I was going to be selling small advertising packages on radio for the station on the phone. And so I called barber shops and beauty shops and gas stations in the area, and one guy picked up the phone and said, Wait a minute, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Are you on the radio right now? And I said, No, I'm just I'm in the sales room. Well, maybe you should be. And he slams the phone on me. He didn't want to talk to me anymore. It wasn't interested in buying advertising. I thought, gee. And I told somebody at the station, and they said, Well, you want to be in the radio? And he went, Yeah, I was on the radio when I was 13. And it just so happened that an older fellow was retiring from the 10am to 2pm slot. K I S King, kiss 99 and KD FM, Pittsburgh, California. And it was a beautiful music station. It was a music station. Remember, old enough will remember music that used to play in elevators that was like violin music, the Percy faith orchestra playing a Rolling Stone song here in the elevator. Yes, well, that's exactly what we played. And it would have been harder to get a job at the local rock stations because, you know, they were popular places. And so I applied for the job, and   Michael Hingson ** 37:06 could have lost your voice a lot sooner, and it would have been a lot harder if you had had to do Wolfman Jack. But that's another story.   Bill Ratner ** 37:13 Yeah, I used to listen to Wolf Man Jack. I worked in a studio in Hollywood. He became a studio. Yeah, big time.   Michael Hingson ** 37:22 Anyway, so you you got to work at the muzack station, got   Bill Ratner ** 37:27 to work at the muzack station, and I was moving to Los Angeles to go to a bigger market, to attempt to penetrate a bigger broadcast market. And one of the sales guys, a very nice guy named Ralph pizzella said, Well, when you get to La you should study with a friend of mine down to pie Troy, he teaches voiceovers. I said, What are voice overs? He said, You know that CVS Pharmacy commercial just carted up and did 75 tags, available in San Fernando, available in San Clemente, available in Los Angeles, available in Pasadena. And I said, Yeah. He said, Well, you didn't get paid any extra. You got paid your $165 a week. The guy who did that commercial for the ad agency got paid probably 300 bucks, plus extra for the tags, that's voiceovers. And I thought, why? There's an idea, what a concept. So he gave me the name and number of old friend acquaintance of his who he'd known in radio, named Don DiPietro, alias Johnny rabbit, who worked for the Dick Clark organization, had a big rock and roll station there. He'd come to LA was doing voiceovers and teaching voiceover classes in a little second story storefront out of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles. So I signed up for his class, and he was an experienced guy, and he liked me, and we all had fun, and I realized I was beginning to study like an actor at 1818, who goes to New York or goes to Los Angeles or Chicago or Atlanta or St Louis to act in the big theaters, and starts acting classes and realizes, oh my goodness, these people are truly professionals. I don't know how to do what they do. And so for six years, I took voice over classes, probably 4050, nights a year, and from disc jockeys, from ex show hosts, from actors, from animated cartoon voices, and put enough time in to get a degree in neurology in medical school. And worked my way up in radio in Los Angeles and had a morning show, a lovely show with a wonderful news man named Phil Reed, and we talked about things and reviewed movies and and played a lot of music. And then I realized, wait a minute, I'm earning three times the money in voiceovers as I am on the radio, and I have to get up at 430 in the morning to be on the radio. Uh, and a wonderful guy who was Johnny Carson's staff announcer named Jack angel said, You're not still on radio, are you? And I said, Well, yeah, I'm working in the morning. And Ka big, get out of there. Man, quit. Quit. And I thought, well, how can I quit? I've always wanted to be a radio announcer. And then there was another wonderful guy on the old am station, kmpc, sweet Dick Whittington. Whittington, right? And he said at a seminar that I went to at a union voice over training class, when you wake up at four in the morning and you swing your legs over the bed and your shoes hit the floor, and you put your head in your hands, and you say to yourself, I don't want to do this anymore. That's when you quit radio. Well, that hadn't happened to me. I was just getting up early to write some comedy segments and on and on and on, and then I was driving around town all day doing auditions and rented an ex girlfriend's second bedroom so that I could nap by myself during the day, when I had an hour in and I would as I would fall asleep, I'd picture myself every single day I'm in a dark voiceover studio, a microphone Is before me, a music stand is before the microphone, and on it is a piece of paper with advertising copy on it. On the other side of the large piece of glass of the recording booth are three individuals, my employers, I begin to read, and somehow the text leaps off the page, streams into my eyes, letter for letter, word for word, into a part of my back brain that I don't understand and can't describe. It is processed in my semi conscious mind with the help of voice over training and hope and faith, and comes out my mouth, goes into the microphone, is recorded in the digital recorder, and those three men, like little monkeys, lean forward and say, Wow, how do you do that? That was my daily creative visualization. Michael, that was my daily fantasy. And I had learned that from from Dale Carnegie, and I had learned that from Olympic athletes on NBC TV in the 60s and 70s, when the announcer would say, this young man you're seeing practicing his high jump is actually standing there. He's standing stationary, and the bouncing of the head is he's actually rehearsing in his mind running and running and leaping over the seven feet two inch bar and falling into the sawdust. And now he's doing it again, and you could just barely see the man nodding his head on camera at the exact rhythm that he would be running the 25 yards toward the high bar and leaping, and he raised his head up during the imaginary lead that he was visualizing, and then he actually jumped the seven foot two inches. That's how I learned about creative visualization from NBC sports on TV.   Michael Hingson ** 43:23 Channel Four in Los Angeles. There you go. Well, so you you broke into voice over, and that's what you did.   Bill Ratner ** 43:38 That's what I did, darn it, I ain't stopping now, there's a wonderful old actor named Bill Irwin. There two Bill Irwin's one is a younger actor in his 50s or 60s, a brilliant actor from Broadway to film and TV. There's an older William Irwin. They also named Bill Irwin, who's probably in his 90s now. And I went to a premiere of a film, and he was always showing up in these films as The senile stock broker who answers the phone upside down, or the senile board member who always asks inappropriate questions. And I went up to him and I said, you know, I see you in everything, man. I'm 85 years old. Some friends and associates of mine tell me I should slow down. I only got cast in movies and TV when I was 65 I ain't slowing down. If I tried to slow down at 85 I'd have to stop That's my philosophy. My hero is the great Don Pardo, the late great   Michael Hingson ** 44:42 for Saturday Night Live and Jeopardy   Bill Ratner ** 44:45 lives starring Bill Murray, Gilder Radner, and   Michael Hingson ** 44:49 he died for Jeopardy before that,   Bill Ratner ** 44:52 yeah, died at 92 with I picture him, whether it probably not, with a microphone and. His hand in his in his soundproof booth, in his in his garage, and I believe he lived in Arizona, although the show was aired and taped in New York, New York, right where he worked for for decades as a successful announcer. So that's the story.   Michael Hingson ** 45:16 Michael. Well, you know, I miss, very frankly, some of the the the days of radio back in the 60s and 70s and so on. We had, in LA what you mentioned, Dick Whittington, Dick whittinghill on kmpc, Gary Owens, you know, so many people who were such wonderful announcers and doing some wonderful things, and radio just isn't the same anymore. It's gone. It's   Bill Ratner ** 45:47 gone to Tiktok and YouTube. And the truth is, I'm not gonna whine about Tiktok or YouTube, because some of the most creative moments on camera are being done on Tiktok and YouTube by young quote influencers who hire themselves out to advertisers, everything from lipstick. You know,   Speaker 1 ** 46:09 when I went to a party last night was just wild and but this makeup look, watch me apply this lip remover and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, no, I have no lip.   Bill Ratner ** 46:20 You know, these are the people with the voices. These are the new voices. And then, of course, the faces. And so I would really advise before, before people who, in fact, use the internet. If you use the internet, you can't complain if you use the internet, if you go to Facebook or Instagram, or you get collect your email or Google, this or that, which most of us do, it's handy. You can't complain about tick tock, tick tock, tick tock. You can't complain about tick tock or YouTube, because it's what the younger generation is using, and it's what the younger generation advertisers and advertising executives and creators and musicians and actors are using to parade before us, as Gary Owens did, as Marlon Brando did, as Sarah Bernhardt did in the 19 so as all as you do, Michael, you're a parader. You're the head of the parade. You've been in on your own float for years. I read your your bio. I don't even know why you want to waste a minute talking to me for goodness sakes.   Michael Hingson ** 47:26 You know, the one thing about podcasts that I like over radio, and I did radio at kuci for seven years when I was in school, what I really like about podcasts is they're not and this is also would be true for Tiktok and YouTube. Primarily Tiktok, I would would say it isn't as structured. So if we don't finish in 60 minutes, and we finish in 61 minutes, no one's gonna shoot us.   Bill Ratner ** 47:53 Well, I beg to differ with you. Now. I'm gonna start a fight with you. Michael, yeah, we need conflict in this script. Is that it The Tick Tock is very structured. Six. No,   Michael Hingson ** 48:03 no, I understand that. I'm talking about podcasts,   Bill Ratner ** 48:07 though, but there's a problem. We gotta Tone It Up. We gotta pick it up. We gotta there's a lot of and I listen to what are otherwise really bright, wonderful personalities on screen, celebrities who have podcasts and the car sucks, and then I had meatballs for dinner, haha. And you know what my wife said? Why? You know? And there's just too much of that. And,   Michael Hingson ** 48:32 oh, I understand, yeah. I mean, it's like, like anything, but I'm just saying that's one of the reasons I love podcasting. So it's my way of continuing what I used to do in radio and having a lot of fun doing it   Bill Ratner ** 48:43 all right, let me ask you. Let me ask you a technical and editorial question. Let me ask you an artistic question. An artist, can you edit this podcast? Yeah. Are you? Do you plan to Nope.   Michael Hingson ** 48:56 I think conversations are conversations, but there is a but, I mean,   Bill Ratner ** 49:01 there have been starts and stops and I answer a question, and there's a long pause, and then, yeah, we can do you edit that stuff   Michael Hingson ** 49:08 out. We do, we do, edit some of that out. And I have somebody that that that does a lot of it, because I'm doing more podcasts, and also I travel and speak, but I can edit. There's a program called Reaper, which is really a very sophisticated   Bill Ratner ** 49:26 close up spaces. You   Michael Hingson ** 49:28 can close up spaces with it, yes, but the neat thing about Reaper is that somebody has written scripts to make it incredibly accessible for blind people using screen readers.   Bill Ratner ** 49:40 What does it do? What does it do? Give me the elevator pitch.   Michael Hingson ** 49:46 You've seen some of the the programs that people use, like computer vision and other things to do editing of videos and so on. Yeah.   Bill Ratner ** 49:55 Yeah. Even Apple. Apple edit. What is it called? Apple? Garage Band. No, that's audio. What's that   Michael Hingson ** 50:03 audio? Oh,   Bill Ratner ** 50:06 quick time is quick   Michael Hingson ** 50:07 time. But whether it's video or audio, the point is that Reaper allows me to do all of that. I can edit audio. I can insert, I can remove pauses. I can do anything with Reaper that anyone else can do editing audio, because it's been made completely accessible.   Bill Ratner ** 50:27 That's great. That's good. That's nice. Oh, it is. It's cool.   Michael Hingson ** 50:31 So so if I want, I can edit this and just have my questions and then silence when you're talking.   Bill Ratner ** 50:38 That might be best. Ladies and gentlemen, here's Bill Ratner,   Michael Hingson ** 50:46 yep, exactly, exactly. Now you have won the moth stories. Slam, what? Tell me about my story. Slam, you've won it nine times.   Bill Ratner ** 51:00 The Moth was started by a writer, a novelist who had lived in the South and moved to New York City, successful novelist named George Dawes green. And the inception of the moth, which many people listening are familiar with from the Moth Radio Hour. It was, I believe, either late 90s or early 2000s when he'd been in New York for a while and was was publishing as a fiction writer, and threw a party, and decided, instead of going to one of these dumb, boring parties or the same drinks being served and same cigarettes being smoked out in the veranda and the same orders. I'm going to ask people to bring a five minute story, a personal story, nature, a true story. You don't have to have one to get into the party, but I encourage you to. And so you know, the 3040, 50 people showed up, many of whom had stories, and they had a few drinks, and they had hors d'oeuvres. And then he said, Okay, ladies and gentlemen, take your seats. It's time for and then I picked names out of a hat, and person after person after person stood up in a very unusual setting, which was almost never done at parties. You How often do you see that happen? Suddenly, the room falls silent, and someone with permission being having been asked by the host to tell a personal story, some funny, some tragic, some complex, some embarrassing, some racy, some wild, some action filled. And afterward, the feedback he got from his friends was, this is the most amazing experience I've ever had in my life. And someone said, you need to do this. And he said, Well, you people left a lot of cigarette butts and beer cans around my apartment. And they said, well, let's do it at a coffee shop. Let's do it at a church basement. So slowly but surely, the moth storytelling, story slams, which were designed after the old poetry slams in the 50s and 60s, where they were judged contests like, like a dance contest. Everybody's familiar with dance contests? Well, there were, then came poetry contests with people singing and, you know, and singing and really energetically, really reading. There then came storytelling contests with people standing on a stage before a silent audience, telling a hopefully interesting, riveting story, beginning middle, end in five minutes. And so a coffee house was found. A monthly calendar was set up. Then came the internet. Then it was so popular standing room only that they had to open yet another and another, and today, some 20 years later, 20 some years later, from Austin, Texas to San Francisco, California to Minneapolis, Minnesota to New York City to Los Angeles. There are moth story slams available on online for you to schedule yourself to go live and in person at the moth.org as in the moth with wings. Friend of mine, I was in New York. He said, You can't believe it. This writer guy, a writer friend of mine who I had read, kind of an avant garde, strange, funny writer was was hosting something called the moth in New York, and we were texting each other. He said, Well, I want to go. The theme was show business. I was going to talk to my Uncle Bobby, who was the bell boy. And I Love Lucy. I'll tell a story. And I texted him that day. He said, Oh man, I'm so sorry. I had the day wrong. It's next week. Next week, I'm going to be back home. And so he said, Well, I think there's a moth in Los Angeles. So about 15 years ago, I searched it down and what? Went to a small Korean barbecue that had a tiny little stage that originally was for Korean musicians, and it was now being used for everything from stand up comedy to evenings of rock and roll to now moth storytelling once a month. And I think the theme was first time. And so I got up and told a silly story and didn't win first prize. They have judges that volunteer judges a table of three judges scoring, you like, at a swim meet or a track beat or, you know, and our gymnastics meet. So this is all sort of familiar territory for everybody, except it's storytelling and not high jumping or pull ups. And I kept going back. I was addicted to it. I would write a story and I'd memorize it, and I'd show up and try to make it four minutes and 50 seconds and try to make it sound like I was really telling a story and not reading from a script. And wish I wasn't, because I would throw the script away, and I knew the stories well enough. And then they created a radio show. And then I began to win slams and compete in the grand slams. And then I started submitting these 750 word, you know, two and a half page stories. Literary magazines got a few published and found a whole new way to spend my time and not make much   Michael Hingson ** 56:25 money. Then you went into poetry.   Bill Ratner ** 56:29 Then I got so bored with my prose writing that I took a poetry course from a wonderful guy in LA called Jack grapes, who had been an actor and a football player and come to Hollywood and did some TV, episodics and and some some episodic TV, and taught poetry. It was a poet in the schools, and I took his class of adults and got a poem published. And thought, wait a minute, these aren't even 750 words. They're like 75 words. I mean, you could write a 10,000 word poem if you want, but some people have, yeah, and it was complex, and there was so much to read and so much to learn and so much that was interesting and odd. And a daughter of a friend of mine is a poet, said, Mommy, are you going to read me one of those little word movies before I go to sleep?   Michael Hingson ** 57:23 A little word movie, word movie out of the   Bill Ratner ** 57:27 mouths of babes. Yeah, and so, so and I perform. You know, last night, I was in Orange County at a organization called ugly mug Cafe, and a bunch of us poets read from an anthology that was published, and we sold our books, and heard other young poets who were absolutely marvelous and and it's, you know, it's not for everybody, but it's one of the things I do.   Michael Hingson ** 57:54 Well, you sent me pictures of book covers, so they're going to be in the show notes. And I hope people will will go out and get them   Bill Ratner ** 58:01 cool. One of the one of the things that I did with poetry, in addition to wanting to get published and wanting to read before people, is wanting to see if there is a way. Because poetry was, was very satisfying, emotionally to me, intellectually very challenging and satisfying at times. And emotionally challenging and very satisfying at times, writing about things personal, writing about nature, writing about friends, writing about stories that I received some training from the National Association for poetry therapy. Poetry therapy is being used like art therapy, right? And have conducted some sessions and and participated in many and ended up working with eighth graders of kids who had lost someone to death in the past year of their lives. This is before covid in the public schools in Los Angeles. And so there's a lot of that kind of work that is being done by constable people, by writers, by poets, by playwrights,   Michael Hingson ** 59:09 and you became a grief counselor,   Bill Ratner ** 59:13 yes, and don't do that full time, because I do voiceovers full time, right? Write poetry and a grand. Am an active grandparent, but I do the occasional poetry session around around grief poetry.   Michael Hingson ** 59:31 So you're a grandparent, so you've had kids and all that. Yes, sir, well, that's is your wife still with us? Yes?   Bill Ratner ** 59:40 Oh, great, yeah, she's an artist and an art educator. Well, that   Michael Hingson ** 59:46 so the two of you can criticize each other's works, then, just   Bill Ratner ** 59:52 saying, we're actually pretty kind to each other. I Yeah, we have a lot of we have a lot of outside criticism. Them. So, yeah, you don't need to do it internally. We don't rely on it. What do you think of this although, although, more than occasionally, each of us will say, What do you think of this poem, honey? Or what do you think of this painting, honey? And my the favorite, favorite thing that my wife says that always thrills me and makes me very happy to be with her is, I'll come down and she's beginning a new work of a new piece of art for an exhibition somewhere. I'll say, what? Tell me about what's, what's going on with that, and she'll go, you know, I have no idea, but it'll tell me what to do.   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:33 Yeah, it's, it's like a lot of authors talk about the fact that their characters write the stories right, which, which makes a lot of sense. So with all that you've done, are you writing a memoir? By any chance, I   Bill Ratner ** 1:00:46 am writing a memoir, and writing has been interesting. I've been doing it for many years. I got it was my graduate thesis from University of California Riverside Palm Desert.   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:57 My wife was a UC Riverside graduate. Oh, hi. Well, they   Bill Ratner ** 1:01:01 have a low residency program where you go for 10 days in January, 10 days in June. The rest of it's online, which a lot of universities are doing, low residency programs for people who work and I got an MFA in creative writing nonfiction, had a book called parenting for the digital age, the truth about media's effect on children. And was halfway through it, the publisher liked it, but they said you got to double the length. So I went back to school to try to figure out how to double the length. And was was able to do it, and decided to move on to personal memoir and personal storytelling, such as goes on at the moth but a little more personal than that. Some of the material that I was reading in the memoir section of a bookstore was very, very personal and was very helpful to read about people who've gone through particular issues in their childhood. Mine not being physical abuse or sexual abuse, mine being death and loss, which is different. And so that became a focus of my graduate thesis, and many people were urging me to write a memoir. Someone said, you need to do a one man show. So I entered the Hollywood fringe and did a one man show and got good reviews and had a good time and did another one man show the next year and and so on. So But writing memoir as anybody knows, and they're probably listeners who are either taking memoir courses online or who may be actively writing memoirs or short memoir pieces, as everybody knows it, can put you through moods from absolutely ecstatic, oh my gosh, I got this done. I got this story told, and someone liked it, to oh my gosh, I'm so depressed I don't understand why. Oh, wait a minute, I was writing about such and such today. Yeah. So that's the challenge for the memoir is for the personal storyteller, it's also, you know, and it's more of a challenge than it is for the reader, unless it's bad writing and the reader can't stand that. For me as a reader, I'm fascinated by people's difficult stories, if they're well   Michael Hingson ** 1:03:24 told well, I know that when in 2002 I was advised to write a book about the World Trade Center experiences and all, and it took eight years to kind of pull it all together. And then I met a woman who actually I collaborated with, Susie Florey, and we wrote thunder dog. And her agent became my agent, who loved the proposal that we sent and actually got a contract within a week. So thunder dog came out in 2011 was a New York Times bestseller, and very blessed by that, and we're working toward the day that it will become a movie still, but it'll happen. And then I wrote a children's version of it, well, not a children's version of the book, but a children's book about me growing up in Roselle, growing up the guide dog who was with me in the World Trade Center, and that's been on Amazon. We self published it. Then last year, we published a new book called Live like a guide dog, which is all about controlling fear and teaching people lessons that I learned prior to September 11. That helped me focus and remain calm.   Bill Ratner ** 1:04:23 What happened to you on September 11,   Michael Hingson ** 1:04:27 I was in the World Trade Center. I worked on the 78th floor of Tower One.   Bill Ratner ** 1:04:32 And what happened? I mean, what happened to you?   Michael Hingson ** 1:04:36 Um, nothing that day. I mean, well, I got out. How did you get out? Down the stairs? That was the only way to go. So, so the real story is not doing it, but why it worked. And the real issue is that I spent a lot of time when I first went into the World Trade Center, learning all I could about what to do in an emergency, talking to police, port authorities. Security people, emergency preparedness people, and also just walking around the world trade center and learning the whole place, because I ran an office for a company, and I wasn't going to rely on someone else to, like, lead me around if we're going to go to lunch somewhere and take people out before we negotiated contracts. So I needed to know all of that, and I learned all I could, also realizing that if there ever was an emergency, I might be the only one in the office, or we might be in an area where people couldn't read the signs to know what to do anyway. And so I had to take the responsibility of learning all that, which I did. And then when the planes hit 18 floors above us on the other side of the building, we get we had some guests in the office. Got them out, and then another colleague, who was in from our corporate office, and I and my guide dog, Roselle, went to the stairs, and we started down. And   Bill Ratner ** 1:05:54 so, so what floor did the plane strike?   Michael Hingson ** 1:05:58 It struck and the NOR and the North Tower, between floors 93 and 99 so I just say 96 okay, and you were 20 floors down, 78 floors 78 so we were 18 floors below, and   Bill Ratner ** 1:06:09 at the moment of impact, what did you think?   Michael Hingson ** 1:06:13 Had no idea we heard a muffled kind of explosion, because the plane hit on the other side of the building, 18 floors above us. There was no way to know what was going on. Did you feel? Did you feel? Oh, the building literally tipped, probably about 20 feet. It kept tipping. And then we actually said goodbye to each other, and then the building came back upright. And then we went,   Bill Ratner ** 1:06:34 really you so you thought you were going to die?   Michael Hingson ** 1:06:38 David, my colleague who was with me, as I said, he was from our California office, and he was there to help with some seminars we were going to be doing. We actually were saying goodbye to each other because we thought we were about to take a 78 floor plunge to the street, when the building stopped tipping and it came back. Designed to do that by the architect. It was designed to do that, which is the point, the point.   Bill Ratner ** 1:07:02 Goodness, gracious. And then did you know how to get to the stairway?   Michael Hingson ** 1:07:04 Oh, absolutely. And did you do it with your friend? Yeah, the first thing we did, the first thing we did is I got him to get we had some guests, and I said, get him to the stairs. Don't let him take the elevators, because I knew he had seen fire above us, but that's all we knew. And but I said, don't take the elevators. Don't let them take elevators. Get them to the stairs and then come back and we'll leave. So he did all that, and then he came back, and we went to the stairs and started down.   Bill Ratner ** 1:07:33 Wow. Could you smell anything?   Michael Hingson ** 1:07:36 We smelled burning jet fuel fumes on the way down. And that's how we figured out an airplane must have hit the building, but we had no idea what happened. We didn't know what happened until the until both towers had collapsed, and I actually talked to my wife, and she's the one who told us how to aircraft have been crashed into the towers, one into the Pentagon, and a fourth, at that time, was still missing over Pennsylvania. Wow. So you'll have to go pick up a copy of thunder dog. Goodness. Good. Thunder dog. The name of the book is Thunder dog, and the book I wrote last year is called Live like a guide dog. It's le

When German hikers Erika and Helmut Simon stumbled upon a dead body in the Oertzel Alps on 19th September, 1991, they believed it to be a recently fallen mountaineer, whose cadaver had been preserved in the ice. In fact, the specimen turned out to be 5,300 years old - older than Stonehenge and the Pyramids. The man, nicknamed ‘Ötzi' by the press, had been struck down in mid-stride, and was discovered surrounded by his possessions, which included a copper axe. His remains are now on permanent display in Italy. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly probe into the various theories about how ‘the Iceman' died; reveal what the post-mortem told us were the contents of his last meal; and consider the ‘Curse of the Frozen Mummy'... Further Reading: • 'The Discovery of Otzi the Iceman and Its Significance' (ThoughtCo, 2020): https://www.thoughtco.com/otzi-the-iceman-1779439 • ‘Who killed Oetzi the Iceman? Italy reopens coldest of cases' (BBC News, 2017): https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-40104139 • ‘Was Otzi the Iceman a Victim of Human Sacrifice?' (Smithsonian Channel, 2015): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUVtJ8oqRWA #Discoveries #Italy #Switzerland #BC This episode first aired in 2023 Love the show? Support us!  Join 

David Marler has had a lifelong interest in the UFO subject and has actively investigated and researched it for 30 years. He joined The Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) in 1990 as a Field Investigator Trainee. Since then, he has served as Field Investigator, State Section Director, as well as Illinois State Director. David is an internationally recognized independent UFO researcher.​​ During his tenure with MUFON, he conducted numerous investigations into alleged UFO sightings and related experiences. He has also lectured on the subject to various school and adult audiences including at the university level. David has assisted the History, Learning, Discovery, Science, and Smithsonian Channel on UFO documentaries over the years in addition to independent productions. David has one of the largest personal libraries of UFO books, journals, magazines, newspapers, and case files from around the world that covers the last 75+ years. With this, he has been examining the detailed history of UFO sighting reports and related patterns.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-x-zone-radio-tv-show--1078348/support.Please note that all XZBN radio and/or television shows are Copyright © REL-MAR McConnell Meda Company, Niagara, Ontario, Canada – www.rel-mar.com. For more Episodes of this show and all shows produced, broadcasted and syndicated from REL-MAR McConell Media Company and The 'X' Zone Broadcast Network and the 'X' Zone TV Channell, visit www.xzbn.net. For programming, distribution, and syndication inquiries, email programming@xzbn.net.We are proud to announce the we have launched TWATNews.com, launched in August 2025.TWATNews.com is an independent online news platform dedicated to uncovering the truth about Donald Trump and his ongoing influence in politics, business, and society. Unlike mainstream outlets that often sanitize, soften, or ignore stories that challenge Trump and his allies, TWATNews digs deeper to deliver hard-hitting articles, investigative features, and sharp commentary that mainstream media won't touch.These are stories and articles that you will not read anywhere else.Our mission is simple: to expose corruption, lies, and authoritarian tendencies while giving voice to the perspectives and evidence that are often marginalized or buried by corporate-controlled media. 

This week's episode is all about documentary narration. Voiceover actor Paula Tiso joins me to share her journey from sketch comedy in Los Angeles to working steadily in promos, radio imaging, true crime, and documentary series. We talk about training, the shift from “perky” reads to grounded storytelling, and what it really takes to support a story with your voice. About Paula: Paula Tiso is a veteran voiceover actor whose work spans documentary narration, true crime, television affiliates, video games, and more. She's voiced Smithsonian Channel documentaries, Oxygen and ID series like Living with a Serial Killer and The Devil Speaks, and brought characters to life in games including Final Fantasy X, No More Heroes, and Fallout 76. Whether narrating history, guiding audiences through true crime, or connecting viewers to their local TV stations, Paula's voice combines warmth, authority, and authenticity.   From Comedy to Narration Paula started out in sketch comedy and found her way into voiceover through commercial training. She explains how those early skills built the foundation for narration work across genres. True Crime and Empathy Narrating true crime requires neutrality and steadiness. At the same time, it calls for empathy when addressing victims and families. Paula shares how she prepares for heavy scripts and keeps her delivery both clear and compassionate. Core Skills for Narrators Commercial training as a base for timing and clarity Adaptability when scripts change mid-session Authenticity in the read, not a “performance” Curiosity to keep learning and exploring new material Preparation that marks cues and supports clean delivery Types of Documentary Narration Nature: slow pacing, voice supports the picture History: sometimes includes character inserts, with age shifts in voice In-show and lifestyle: friendly and helpful Promos and affiliates: concise and reliable Building a Career Paula describes narration as building a career vine by vine, one connection leading to the next. She emphasizes curiosity, preparation, and adaptability as the keys to staying relevant. AI and the Future Paula also discusses how AI is impacting voiceover, and the work organizations like NAVA are doing to protect performers through transparency and consent. Episode Takeaways Let the voice support the picture Documentary reads today are grounded and authentic Empathy without bias is essential in true crime Preparation and adaptability make sessions run smoothly Careers grow step by step, connection by connection Resources and Mentions National Association of Voice Actors (NAVA)  Living with a Serial Killer on Peacock  Paula Tiso's narration shorts and blog  Support the Podcast If you're enjoying the Acting Business Boot Camp podcast, please leave us a 5-star review wherever you listen. We're close to reaching 100 reviews, and your support makes a real difference. Stay Connected Email: peter@actingbusinessbootcamp.com  Coaching and classes: Acting Business Boot Camp

Windsor became the official surname of the British Royal family on 17th July 1917, when King George V issued a proclamation declaring that “The Name of Windsor is to be borne by His Royal House and Family and Relinquishing the Use of All German Titles and Dignities.” The decision to change the family name came amid strong anti-German feeling following air raids over London, and in particular the bombing of a school in the East End by Gotha bombers - by coincidence, the same name as the royal family. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly discover who was responsible for picking ‘Windsor' as the family's new name; uncover the Royal Albert Hall's flawed response to the onset of World War One; and reveal the REAL Royal surname… Further Reading: • ‘British royal family change their name to Windsor' (The Guardian, 1917): https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/from-the-archive-blog/2017/jul/17/british-royal-family-windsor-name-change-1917 • ‘Jeremy Paxman: A hundred years of Windsors but still the Queen is partly German (FT, 2017): https://www.ft.com/content/b80a9dde-f1f0-11e6-95ee-f14e55513608 • ‘'The British Royal Family Needed to Seem Less German During WWI' (Smithsonian Channel, 2019): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZaOlJajows This episode originally aired in 2023 Love the show? Support us!  Join 

Phil Keoghan returns to talk about The Amazing Race! Find out how he got the gig, what other reality show host was up for it too, and what it really takes to film the incredible race around the world. Phils also talking about his bungee jumping world record, the Nude Awakenings TV show he hosted and how that may have indirectly inspired the Austin Powers movies, and the scuba diving accident that nearly took his life when he was 19. Plus, Phil reveals some of the crazier items on his bucket list, and gives a little 411 on his new Smithsonian Channel series, Flying High.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

David Marler has had a lifelong interest in the UFO subject and has actively investigated and researched it for 30 years. He joined The Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) in 1990 as a Field Investigator Trainee. Since then, he has served as Field Investigator, State Section Director, as well as Illinois State Director. David is an internationally recognized independent UFO researcher.​​ During his tenure with MUFON, he conducted numerous investigations into alleged UFO sightings and related experiences. He has also lectured on the subject to various school and adult audiences including at the university level. David has assisted the History, Learning, Discovery, Science, and Smithsonian Channel on UFO documentaries over the years in addition to independent productions. David has one of the largest personal libraries of UFO books, journals, magazines, newspapers, and case files from around the world that covers the last 75+ years. With this, he has been examining the detailed history of UFO sighting reports and related patterns.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-x-zone-radio-tv-show--1078348/support.

George III's mental incapacitation was formally recognised by Parliament on February 5th, 1811, when The Regency Act handed power to his son, the future George IV.  Though George III had struggled with bouts of illness for decades, his periods of lucidity made it difficult to decide when, or even if, he should be replaced. He resisted the idea of ceding power, particularly to his son, with whom he had a notoriously difficult relationship. Parliament wasn't thrilled about George IV either, seeing him as indulgent, irresponsible, and politically aligned with the opposition. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly examine George III's "mad spells"; discover the shockingly cruel treatments contemporary medicine offered up - including blistering his skin with arsenic, dunking him in freezing water, and using leeches to "suck out the madness" - and explain how he kept the love of his people even as his health declined… CONTENT WARNING: mental health trauma, infant mortality. Further Reading: • 'The King's 'Malady': George III's Mental Illness Explored' (Historic Royal Palaces): https://www.hrp.org.uk/blog/the-kings-malady-george-iiis-mental-illness-explored/#gs.jra39q • ‘George IV' (Historic UK): https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/George-IV/ • ‘Mad King of Britain: King George III

Before Yuri Gagarin, before Alan Shepard… a chimp called Ham was blasted into space for six-and-a-half minutes of weightlessness on 31st January, 1961. He successfully returned to Earth without serious physical injury, albeit over 100 miles away from NASA's intended splashdown location. Travelling at 5,857 m.p.h, Ham was seated in a special chair called a ‘biopack', which administered electric shocks to the soles of his feet if he failed to complete basic tasks in orbit. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly consider how Ham's schooling had striking parallels with the training undertaken by human astronauts; reveal just how much of him is actually ‘buried' at the International Space Hall of Fame; and explain the fate of the SECOND chimp in space, Enos, who wasn't quite so lucky…  CONTENT WARNING: animal cruelty, animal experimentation and dissection Further Reading: • Meet Ham The Chimp, The Animal Astronaut Who Changed History (All That's Interesting, 2021): https://allthatsinteresting.com/ham-the-chimp • ‘Ham the astrochimp: hero or victim?' (The Guardian, 2013): https://www.theguardian.com/science/animal-magic/2013/dec/16/ham-chimpanzee-hero-or-victim • ‘NASA's First Chimp in Space' (Smithsonian Channel, 2019): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wdbV4SBGYo Love the show? Support us!  Join 

David Marler has had a lifelong interest in the UFO subject and has actively investigated and researched it for 30 years. He joined The Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) in 1990 as a Field Investigator Trainee. Since then, he has served as Field Investigator, State Section Director, as well as Illinois State Director. David is an internationally recognized independent UFO researcher.​​ During his tenure with MUFON, he conducted numerous investigations into alleged UFO sightings and related experiences. He has also lectured on the subject to various school and adult audiences including at the university level. David has assisted the History, Learning, Discovery, Science, and Smithsonian Channel on UFO documentaries over the years in addition to independent productions. David has one of the largest personal libraries of UFO books, journals, magazines, newspapers, and case files from around the world that covers the last 75+ years. With this, he has been examining the detailed history of UFO sighting reports and related patterns.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-x-zone-radio-tv-show--1078348/support.

In this episode of the Diamond Effect Podcast, Maggie Perotin talks with one of her clients, Craig Colby, a seasoned television executive and founder of Colby Vision. Craig shares his journey from a successful career in television to running his own business. He discusses the challenges and rewards of entrepreneurship, the importance of storytelling in business, and how to effectively market oneself in a competitive industry. Tune in to learn valuable insights on client acquisition, adapting to industry changes, and leveraging storytelling to enhance your brand.Key Takeaways:Craig's transition from television to entrepreneurship.The highs and lows of running a business.The power of storytelling in business and how to get started with video content.Insights on client acquisition and maintaining a strong market presence.Craig's experience with business coaching and its impact on his growth.Resources:Connect with Craig Colby: Colby Vision WebsiteCraig's Book: "All Caps: Stories That Justify an Outrageous Hat Collection" is available on Amazon and Indigo.Ready to scale your business? Book an initial strategy call with Maggie HERE - https://stairwaytoleadership.com/ to see if you're a good fit to work with her. About Craig:Craig Colby is an award winning-executive producer, showrunner, director, and writer who makes highly rated television programs, seen around the world.  His work has been seen on Discovery Channel, BBC Earth, Smithsonian Channel, CTV, and TSN, to name a few. Currently, Craig owns colbyvision, a video production and consulting company and is the author of the multiple award-winning book: ALL CAPS: Stories That Justify an Outrageous Hat Collection. 

Join Paula Peters, citizen of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe as she shares the historical and cultural legacy and story of the Wampanoag: the People of the First Light. She unravels common misperceptions and false narratives around the first “Thanksgiving” and the harvest of 1621 involving Native people and the first colonizers, the Pilgrims. By acknowledging what has gone before, she invites us to envision and collectively create a balanced way forward for humanity. The Wampanoag have lived in southeastern Massachusetts for more than 12,000 years. They are the tribe first encountered by Mayflower Pilgrims when they landed in Provincetown harbor and explored the eastern coast of Cape Cod and when they continued on to Patuxet (Plymouth) to establish Plymouth Colony. In 2020, America commemorated the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower voyage and the founding of Plymouth Colony, a story that cannot be told without the perspective of the indigenous people who were here as that ship arrived and who still remain. For Part II of this interview, CLICK HERE https://www.patreon.com/posts/116836972?pr=true Video Links: NK 360 The First Thanksgiving with Linda Coombs: https://youtu.be/pba21_DOGl8?si=4BuJUMlpk0U9zLAK Story of Squanto, Smithsonian Channel: https://youtu.be/N-uE7cbH1-I?si=DY2Il4PYp0C4bG7x Cranberry Day: Traditional Harvest Festivals, Smoke Sygnals/Smithsonian: https://youtu.be/g2pSir70DG4?si=RRA9b9uk4v4LS0rZ For an extended interview and other benefits, become an EcoJustice Radio patron at https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio LINKS The Thanksgiving Story from the Wampanoag Perspective: https://wilderutopia.com/traditions/wampanoag-thanksgiving-stolen-land-massacred-hope/ Native Knowledge 360: https://americanindian.si.edu/nk360 Plymouth 400: https://www.plymouth400inc.org/category/news/ Suppressed Speech Wamsutta Frank B. James:http://www.uaine.org/suppressed_speech.htm Native Land Conservancy: https://www.nativelandconservancy.org Linda Coombs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGSmn2UPicQ https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/692454/colonization-and-the-wampanoag-story-by-linda-coombs/ Paula Peters is a politically, socially and culturally active citizen of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe. For more than a decade she worked as a journalist for the Cape Cod Times and is now co-owner of SmokeSygnals [http://smokesygnals.com], a Native owned and operated creative production agency. As an independent scholar and writer of Native, and particularly Wampanoag history, she produced the traveling exhibit “Our”Story: 400 Years of Wampanoag History and The Wampum Belt Project documenting the art and tradition of wampum in the contemporary Wampanoag community [https://www.plymouth400inc.org/category/news/]. In 2020 she wrote the introduction to the 400th Anniversary Edition of William Bradford's, Of Plimoth Plantation. Paula is also the executive producer of the 2016 documentary film Mashpee Nine and author of the companion book, a story of law enforcement abuse of power and cultural justice in the Wampanoag community in 1976. Paula lives with her husband and children in Mashpee, Massachusetts, the Wampanoag ancestral homeland. Carry Kim, Co-Host of EcoJustice Radio. An advocate for ecosystem restoration, Indigenous lifeways, and a new humanity born of connection and compassion, she is a long-time volunteer for SoCal350, member of Ecosystem Restoration Camps, and a co-founder of the Soil Sponge Collective, a grassroots community organization dedicated to big and small scale regeneration of Mother Earth. Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/ Podcast Blog: https://www.wilderutopia.com/category/ecojustice-radio/ Support the Podcast: Patreon https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=LBGXTRM292TFC&source=url Executive Producer and Intro: Jack Eidt Hosted by Carry Kim Engineer and Original Music: Blake Quake Beats Episode 242 Photo credit: Paula Peters

In America's collective consciousness, Pat Nixon has long been perceived as enigmatic. She was voted “Most Admired Woman in the World” in 1972 and made Gallup Poll's top ten list of most admired women fourteen times. She survived the turmoil of the Watergate scandal with her popularity and dignity intact. And yet, the media often portrayed Mrs. Nixon as elusive and mysterious. The real Pat Nixon, however, bore little resemblance to the woman so often described in the press. Pat married California lawyer Richard Nixon in June of 1940, becoming a wife, mother, and her husband's trusted political partner in short order. As the couple rose to prominence, Pat became Second Lady from 1953-1961 and then First Lady from 1969-1974, forging her own graceful path between the protocols of the strait-laced mid-century and the bra-burning Sixties and Seventies. About Heath Hardage Lee: Heath Hardage Lee is an award-winning historian, biographer, and curator. Heath's second book, The League of Wives is being developed into a television series. Heath and her work have been featured on the Today Show, C-Span, and on the Smithsonian Channel's America's Hidden Stories. She also writes about history and politics for publications such as Time, The Hill, The Atlantic and White House History Quarterly. She lives in Roanoke, Virginia, with her husband Chris, her children Anne Alston and James, and her French bulldog Dolly Parton.

Today on the show we're talking about a bona fide beauty icon—Elizabeth Arden, who built the cosmetics empire of the same name beginning in 1910. Now, if you think about that time period, not many women were running a beauty empire, but she was. At the height of her career, she was one of the wealthiest women in the world, but what do we really know about Elizabeth Arden, the woman? Well, first of all, Elizabeth Arden is not her birth name—that would be Florence Nightengale Graham. Elizabeth Arden is largely to thank for establishing makeup as proper and appropriate, and even necessary, as previously makeup was only associated with actresses and prostitutes. Today's guest, Dr. Stacy A. Cordery, has written a brilliant book about this remarkable woman called Becoming Elizabeth Arden: The Woman Behind the Global Beauty Empire, which is out September 3. Buoyed by her genuine belief that “every woman deserves to be beautiful,” as Stacy writes, “her salons empowered women—not just to look their best, but to be their best.” Elizabeth Arden was known for its three simple foundational skincare steps—cleanse, tone, and nourish. It's also known for its red door salons, the Arden look, color harmony, and now, for being an empire. Today on the show, Stacy teaches us about the woman and about the company, which was acquired by Revlon in 2016 for a whopping $870 million. Elizabeth Arden is responsible for fashioning the American woman. She made cosmetics mandatory, if one wanted to be fashionable. Stacy writes that her creative genius still influences fashion and design today, and “From the humblest of origins, pioneering businesswoman Elizabeth Arden grew into a global industry leader." She died in 1966 at 84 years old, but certainly not before leaving her mark. Dr. Stacy A. Cordery is here to tell us all about her. She is a biographer and a professor of history at Iowa State University, and is the author of Alice: Alice Roosevelt Longworth, from White House Princess to Washington Power Broker, Juliette Gordon Low: The Remarkable Founder of the Girl Scouts, and two books about President Theodore Roosevelt. You might have seen her work on NPR, The History Channel, CNN, C-SPAN, and The Smithsonian Channel, and now she's right here, right now. Let's take a listen.   Becoming Elizabeth Arden: The Woman Behind the Global Beauty Empire by Dr. Stacy A. Cordery

Today I am talking to author Heath Hardage Lee about one of America's First Ladies, and perhaps one of our most private ones—Pat Nixon, wife of President Richard Nixon. The timing is interesting: earlier this month marked 50 years since President Nixon's resignation from the presidency following Watergate, and earlier this month Heath released her really, really fantastic new book The Mysterious Mrs. Nixon: The Life and Times of Washington's Most Private First Lady, which I absolutely tore through. There is so much we have gotten wrong about Mrs. Nixon over the years. First of all, she was a private woman, which led her to come across as, as the book's title suggests, mysterious. Misunderstood, even. Heath and I speak about this in today's episode, but her public persona was “Plastic Pat,” while the real Mrs. Nixon was anything but. Heath and I talk today about her love story with Richard Nixon; how Mrs. Nixon was First Lady and running the East Wing of the White House at a very interesting time, constantly toeing the line between the traditional wife and modern woman; what doors she opened for women; an example of Pat at her best and at her wobbliest; and so much more. Pat Nixon died in 1993, and, perhaps indicative of his love for her and how much he needed her, President Nixon died just 10 months later. To teach us more about Mrs. Nixon is Heath Hardage Lee, an award-winning historian, biographer, and curator. Heath's book The League of Wives is currently being developed into a television series, and Heath and her work have been featured on The Today Show, C-SPAN, and on the Smithsonian Channel's America's Hidden Stories. She also writes about history and politics for outlets like Time, The Atlantic, The Hill, and White House History Quarterly. Take a listen to our conversation.   The Mysterious Mrs. Nixon: The Life and Times of Washington's Most Private First Lady by Heath Hardage Lee

Thom Pinto is one of the most accomplished voice actors of the last 30 years. In a rare interview, Thom sits down with me and discusses his experience and success in various genres, including commercials, promos, in-show narration, and movie trailers.  He talks about the importance of versatility and the ability to adapt to different genres and shares insights into the challenges and strategies for each genre, such as storytelling in promos, tailoring the voice to the network in in-show narration, and capturing the essence of the drama in movie trailers.  He also discusses the joy he finds in teaching and helping others succeed in the industry. This is our interview with the great and kind Thom Pinto. https://www.thompinto.com/copy-of-styles Takeaways Versatility is key in voice acting, allowing actors to work in different genres and adapt to various roles. Understanding the purpose of the project, the network's brand, and the visuals is crucial in delivering effective in-show narration. Movie trailers require capturing the essence of the drama and telling a story in a short amount of time. Commercials demand finding the balance between being memorable and not dominating the visuals, while also representing the brand. Teaching and helping others succeed in the industry brings great joy and satisfaction. Chapters 00:00 Introduction and Thom Pinto's Accomplishments 05:11 Success Outside of the Promo Genre 12:31 The Art of In-Show Narration 22:20 The Work Tom Pinto Enjoys Most _____________________________ ▶️ Watch this video next: https://youtu.be/rQiWcRZ1A30?si=NShXXVEhA2Xxo2S1 SUBSCRIBE: https://www.youtube.com/@vo-pro?sub_confirmation=1 The VO Freedom Master Plan: https://vopro.pro/vo-freedom-master-plan The VO Pro Community: https://vopro.app Use code You15Tube for 15% off of your membership for life. The VO Pro Podcast: https://vopro.pro/podcast 7 Steps to Starting and Developing a Career in Voiceover: https://welcome.vopro.pro/7-steps-yt Move Touch Inspire Newsletter for Voice Actors: https://vopro.pro/move-touch-inspire-youtube Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/vofreedom The VO Pro Shop: https://vopro.pro/shop Say Hi on Social:  https://pillar.io/paulschmidtpro https://www.instagram.com/vopro.pro https://www.clubhouse.com/@paulschmidtvo https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulschmidtvo/ My voice over website: https://paulschmidtvoice.com GVAA Rate Guide: http://vorateguide.com Tools and People I Work with and Recommend (If you use these links to buy something I may earn a commission.):  Recommended Book List with Links: https://amzn.to/3H9sBOO Gear I Use with Links: https://amzn.to/3V4d3kZ As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. For lead generation and targeting - Apollo.io: https://apollo.grsm.io/yt-paulschmidtpro Way Better than Linktree: https://pillar.io/referral/paulschmidtpro

In his 1887 polemic, On the Genealogy of Morality, Nietzsche suggested that the idea of good and evil, of morality itself, might have been born by slaves. Candida Moss, who holds the Edward Cadbury Chair of Theology at the University of Birmingham, riffs off this Nietzchean idea by suggesting that enslaved Christians, as well as artisans and women, might have actually written (or, at least, transcribed) the Bible. This precariat of antiquity were, Moss argues in her new God's Ghostwriters, not much different to the Amazon delivery men and Uber drivers who now make up the labor force of our digital economy. It's an intriguing argument especially, as Moss gleefully acknowledges, because it will offend many American evangelicals who assume that the Bible was written by white men like Luke, Peter, Mark, Paul, John and Ringo. Happy Easter everyone. Enjoy your Cadbury chocolate eggs and the Resurrection/Passover. Candida Moss is Edward Cadbury Chair of Theology at the University of Birmingham, prior to which she taught for almost a decade at the University of Notre Dame. Moss is the award-winning author or coauthor of seven books, has served as papal news commentator for CBS News, and writes a column for The Daily Beast. She has written for and had her work reported on in the New York Times, the LA Times, the Washington Post, The Guardian, and The Atlantic, among other outlets. Moss has appeared as an on-air expert for CNN and Fox News, and in documentaries for NBC, National Geographic, History Channel, BBC, PBS, Smithsonian Channel, and others. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Oxford, and MA and PhD from Yale.Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

 George Kourounis is an explorer, storm chaser & TV presenter who has spent 25 years documenting extreme forces of nature and natural phenomena worldwide including tornadoes, hurricanes, volcanoes, floods, and the effects of climate change. He holds the title of National Geographic Explorer, Explorer In Residence for the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, and served the maximum term as the Canadian Chapter Chair of the Explorers Club. Best known for having hosted the TV series “Angry Planet” he also co-hosted “Storm Hunters” for The Weather Network and is a regular on-camera contributor for “Strange Evidence” & “What On Earth?” on Science Channel. He's appeared in programs for National Geographic, Discovery, Smithsonian Channel, Netflix, most of the major TV networks, and is frequently invited to comment about global weather & natural disasters by CNN, BBC, CBC, and other news outlets. George earned a Guinness World Record for being the first person to ever set foot at the bottom of the Darvaza “Doorway To Hell” flaming gas crater in remote Turkmenistan, the project was funded by a National Geographic science grant and was also filmed for Nat Geo television. He has documented changes to melting permafrost in Siberia, sea level rise in Tuvalu, shifting tornado & hurricane patterns in North America, wildfires in Australia, and melting polar ice. In 2014 he was awarded the Stefansson Medal from the Explorers Club Canadian Chapter "For outstanding contribution to science and to public education by documenting extreme environments through filmmaking.” In 2020 was awarded the Leif Erikson Exploration Award from the Exploration Museum in Iceland. Follow George atwww.furiousearth.com george@stormchaser.ca Hosted by Michael J. Reinhart MichaelJReinhart.com An Adventure and Exploration Podcast 

Rerun: Why is Sunday the Christian day of rest? Because Jesus said so? No! It was Roman emperor Constantine The Great who decreed on 7th March, 320 that “on the venerable day of the sun, let the magistrate and the people residing in cities rest and let all workshops be closed”.It was a departure from the tradition of commemorating Sabbath on a Saturday, which had been in line with Jewish teachings - and the word of God as depicted in the Bible itself.In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how the Sumerians and Babylonians also played their part in the seemingly arbitrary division of the week into seven days; ask if Constantine was hedging his bets by merging the Christian calendar with the Roman sun-God's special day; and reveal how the Emperor tried to cheat his way into Heaven at the very last minute…Further Reading:• ‘Constantine Orders That Sunday Becomes A Day of Rest' (BBC History Magazine, 2016): https://www.pressreader.com/uk/bbc-history-magazine/20160225/281698319039318• ‘Sol Invictus - Roman Sun God' (Mythology.net, 2016): https://mythology.net/roman/roman-gods/sol-invictus/• ‘Why Christianity Owes a Lot to the Roman Emperor Constantine' (Smithsonian Channel, 2020): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9y7c9vweo8k‘Why am I hearing a rerun?' Every Thursday is 'Throwback Thursday' on Today in History with the Retrospectors: running one repeat per week means we can keep up the quality of our independent podcast. Daily shows like this require a lot of work! But as ever we'll have something new for you tomorrow, so follow us wherever you get your podcasts: podfollow.com/RetrospectorsLove the show? Join 

President Woodrow Wilson finally signed into law a bill establishing The Grand Canyon as the USA's 15th National Park on this day in 1919. Although preservation orders had given the Canyon some protection prior to this moment, it had been 37 years since Benjamin Harrison had first attempted to enshrine its special status more specifically. The first white American known to traverse the Colorado River, Joseph C Ives, had proclaimed the Canyon to be ‘valueless'. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly ponder whether full protection would ever have arrived, were it not for the assassination of President McKinley; explain what tourism to the Canyon entailed in the days before the Railroad; and explain why, since 1979, officially sanctioned souvenir rocks have had greater appeal to visitors…  Further Reading: • ‘The Grand Canyon turns 100: rare photos of life and adventure' (The Guardian, 2019): https://www.theguardian.com/environment/gallery/2019/feb/26/the-grand-canyon-turns-100-rare-photos-of-life-and-adventure • ‘The Grand Canyon - By Byron Augustin, Jake Kubena' (Marshall Cavendish Benchmark, 2010): https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Grand_Canyon/K8XI63dLTXkC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=woodrow+wilson+grand+canyon&pg=PA53&printsec=frontcover • ‘How Was the Grand Canyon Formed?' (Smithsonian Channel, 2016): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6IBg4Srb6E This episode first premiered in 2022, for members of

Holmberg's Morning Sickness - Tuesday February 20, 2024 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Holmberg's Morning Sickness - Tuesday February 20, 2024 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As I watched Aerial America on the Smithsonian Channel, I could not have been more upset with the nonchalant manner in which they treated Andrew Jackson's genocide. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/politicsdoneright/message

In this one year anniversary episode of “How Do You Say That?!” sponsored by britishvoiceover.co.uk, Mike Cooper joins Sam and Mark to talk about creating characters for inanimate objects, the nature of wildlife documentary voicing and how it can be used in other areas, and nipples! Our VO question this week is all about the pros and cons of being an ex-pat VO abroad!HDYST is a year old today and we want to thank you for your support and loyal listenership! Get involved! Have you got a Wildcard suggestion or an action that we should try or an idea for the show? Send it to us via Mark or Sam's social media or email it directly to podcast@britishvoiceover.co.ukScript 1Sam, Sam, Sam… here we go again... same story every year.All you do is work and work, then you come home for Christmas... late......and you find yourself scrambling for a last minute gift, in the only place open within 50 kilometres.Tomorrow morning, she may be delighted to open a box of chocolates and some crisps, while the children can unwrap some car wax, stickers or a lovely hanging air freshener.Don't get me wrong, you're a nice guy, but... really?!?Is there nothing for me?Script 2Experience animals like never before… and observe two new books in their natural habitat - the spring Book Fair.Cool Cats is a sight to behold.Nestled within the pages, you'll find cast of all shapes, sizes and colours… witness the wonder of countless cool cat facts, ready to pounce off the page each exhibiting the most famous of the cat traits - cuteness.Then…enter the wild word of Gator Bites.Marvel at fierce predator pictures…And learn what really lies… beneath the surface.**Listen to all of our podcasts here - you can also watch on YouTube, or say to your smart speaker "Play How Do You Say That?!"About our guest: Mike Cooper is a British voiceover artist who moved from London to a log cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina almost ten years ago. He spent many years with the BBC and ITV, is the narrator of countless documentaries for HISTORY, Smithsonian Channel and National Geographic in the UK, and voices commercials, promos, corporate projects, IVR, e-Learning and more, for clients all over the world. In 2019 Mike narrated his first audiobook and is now nearing 80 published titles. When he's not in his studio, his life is increasingly consumed by horses as he and his husband Marc begin the process of opening a sanctuary.Mike's Website Mike on YouTube @mikecooper on Twitter @mikecooper on Instagram Resources: Click here for the Wildcard Generator and don't forget to think of an action your character can be doing!Mark's demos & contact...

Meredith Goldberg-Morse is the Director of Social Impact for Showtime and MTV Entertainment Studios at Paramount Global, where she develops storyline integrations and content-led impact campaigns across major brands including MTV, SHOWTIME, Comedy Central, Smithsonian Channel, and Paramount+. Meredith and MTV just won a Shorty Impact Award for Don't Leave Me Behind: Stories of Young Ukrainian Survival.

What's the best way to usher in the New Year? On this week's episode, legendary voiceover artist Bill Ratner shares a true story from his early days in Radio: When his green card bride Claudine leaves him, he's alone during the Holidays in an empty double wide and his evening shift duties at KJOI (LA's easy listening music station). So when a fan requests something a bit more intimate than the Percy Faith Orchestra, why not make her happy? And on New Year's Eve, they produce their own live show together over the air waves, using the station's 50,000 watts of power to make the world a bit less lonely.  And Dixie ends the year with the story you've been asking her for. #HappyNewYear   Song: ‘Love's A Stranger' (Warhaus)   New Year l Radio DJ l Drive by Fucking l Anonymous Sex | Music Request Line l Radio Antenna l 1970's l Lubrication l Harlequin Romance Novel l Top of Topanga Mobile Home Park l Double Wide l Vaseline l Instrumental Radio l Muzak l Muumuu | Terrycloth Bathtub Animals l FM Transmitter l Top of the Hour l Station ID l Honda Civic l Radio Console l Blinking LEDs I Percy Faith Orchestra l Middle Age l Smog l Order Up a Man l Microphone l Los Angeles l Happy New Year l Divorce l Radio Tower l Lawrence Welk l Green Card l Quell l Radio Station l Marriage l Swiss l London l LA l Radio Announcer l Chief Engineer l Sales Manager l   About our Storyteller:   Bill Ratner is one of Hollywood's premier voiceover artists and a published poet, essayist, and fiction writer. He narrates movie trailers for Pixar's Inside-Out, Marvel's Ant Man, The Kid Who Would Become King, Cold Pursuit, The Emoji Movie, Coen brothers' Hail Caesar, Will Ferrell's The Campaign, MegaMind, Talladega Nights, etc., commercials for Hyundai, Sprint, Pizza Hut, etc., promos for CBS-TV, NBC-TV, ABC-TV, Cartoon Network, documentary narrations for Discovery, History Channel, Smithsonian Channel, Disney World, and is the game voice of "Donnel Udina" on Mass Effect 1, 2 & 3, and the cartoon voice of "Flint" on G.I. Joe, Robot Chicken, Community, and Family Guy.   One of America's leading storytellers, Bill is a 9-time winner of The Moth Story Slam and a 2-time winner of The Best of The Hollywood Fringe Festival Extension for solo performance. Bill's spoken word performances can be heard on National Public Radio's Good Food, The Business, and KCRW's Strangers. He has told stories at Comedy Central Stage, National Storytelling Festival, Long Beach Comic Con, G.I. Joe Con, Portland Storytelling Festival, Timpanogos Storytelling Conference, National Storytelling Network Conference, and Los Angeles Unified School District classrooms since 1992.   Episode links: Needle Play Acupuncture: Needle Play Acupuncture was made by and for the Kink, Leather, and LGBTQIA+ communities. We deserve to have our whole selves treated, because feeling great, playing hard and having spectacular sex can be health goals too. NeedlePlay specializes in Transgender-affirming, kink-aware, and trauma-informed care that is sex and body-positive. They offer Expertise in Transgender care, from HRT enhancement to hair growth support. Plus, as you'd expect: Back pain, muscle pain, injuries, digestive issues, libido issues, mental health, inflammation, graceful aging through micro-needling, cosmetic acupuncture, and more.   For a limited time, Bawdy Storytelling Listeners  can use the discount code “May I Have Another”, and you'll get 25% off. It's holiday time and an Acupuncture certificate is the perfect gift for your Dominant, your Metamours, or for the self-care you need after those exhausting family gatherings.   SUBSCRIBE: Want to be the first to know where Bawdy is headed to on our National Tour? The best place to stay abreast is our email newsletter. Ticket links will be released on the Bawdy newsletter; as soon as we confirm a date, you can find out there.   You'll be the first to see upcoming Tour Dates, get access to Tickets, Storytelling Workshops, Livestreams, Podcasts, Fan Meetups and Special Events. I've been shadowbanned on Social Media (which means no one can see my posts - and that sucks when you're headed out on a big Tour). So having my social media accounts deleted is probably next. If that happens, the only sure way for you and I to stay in touch is for you to sign up for Bawdy's email newsletter. Please ask your friends to sign up, TOO. Let's be Friends!   Subscribe to the Bawdy Storytelling email list at https://bawdystorytelling.com/subscribe   TOUR DATES for Bawdy's East Coast Tour : • Baltimore MD (Friday, January 19th, 2024) https://tinyurl.com/BawdyBaltimoreFriday   • Baltimore MD (Saturday, January 20th, 2024) https://tinyurl.com/BawdyBaltimoreSaturday Philadelphia PA (City Winery on January 26th, 2024)http://tinyurl.com/BawdyPhilly   Pittsburgh PA (City Winery on February 4th, 2024)https://tinyurl.com/BawdyPittsburgh   Nashville TN (City Winery on Friday, February 9th, 2024):http://tinyurl.com/BawdyNashville   New York City (City Winery on Wednesday, February 14th, 2024):http://tinyurl.com/BawdyNYC   Atlanta GA (City Winery on Saturday, February 17th, 2024): Tickets at https://tinyurl.com/BawdyAtlanta2024 Boston (City Winery on Friday, February 25th, 2024):http://tinyurl.com/BawdyBoston   I'm currently working on Bawdy in Chicago, Milwaukee and St Louis too. Fingers crossed! Want me in your city? Send me a message and let's make a plan! BawdyStorytelling@gmail.com   And YES, Bawdy is truly struggling right now. This Tour is my Hail Mary pass. So If you love the podcast and want it to continue, please HELP.   Your one-time Donation can make a huge difference to Bawdy. Our donation links are: Venmo: Venmo.com/BawdyStorytelling Paypal: paypal.me/bawdystorytelling Zelle: BawdyStorytelling@gmail.com BuyMeACoffee: buymeacoff.ee/bawdy Ca$hApp:   I'll need to fly to certain shows, so Your Airline Miles can help immensely, too. Message me at BawdyStorytelling@gmail.com - and Thank You.   Patreon Special Offer:   All-You-Can-Eat Video Special: Need some Entertainment to keep you thrilled and connected til the world warms up again? Right now, I have an End of Year Special Offer: 40+ Hours of Bawdy on Video! Sign up (or Increase your support) for Bawdy's Patreon and you get: Stories from Margaret Cho, Sunny Megatron, Dirty Lola, Slutever, ReidAboutSex and many more Music from Rachel Lark, Jefferson Bergey, Shirley Gnome - All your favorites 16 Full Livestreams You'll be helping Dixie fulfill her Bawdy Storytelling Tour Dreams • Available at the $25/month or greater level at: https://www.patreon.com/Bawdy   Not a Patreon member yet? Join Bawdy's Patreon now to get exclusive Patreon-only rewards (and my eternal gratitude)   And by the way: THANK YOU for everything you do to keep Bawdy going!   PRIVATE COACHING with Dixie: Want to work one-on-one with me? Right now I'm offering personal branding (your dating profile, website, etc), Storycoaching a nervous new keynote speaker, and I help develop documentaries, craft personal stories for the stage, and write their books - because storytelling is everywhere you wanna be. I can help you live the life that you've always dreamed about: communicate with clarity, help you land your dream job, and discover your own story … Whether it's getting onstage for the first time, writing your memoir, creating a podcast, or learning brand storytelling for your business, I can help. Email me at BawdyStorytelling@gmail.com and let's make it happen.   My upcoming Substack 'The Dixie Ramble' is at https://substack.com/profile/22550258-dixie-de-la-tour #Subscribe   Bawdy Got Me Laid perfume, Bawdy Butter & more: Dixie has created her own fragrance: You'll love #BawdyGotMeLaid perfume, scented with golden honey, amber, ylang ylang, and warm vanilla. There's also our (scented or unscented) creamy Bawdy Butter, Hair & Bawdy Oil, & more. Bawdy Got Me Laid Merchandise means you can deliver your own great smelling Motorboats while supporting Dixie and Bawdy. Get yours today at https://bawdystorytelling.com/merchandise   Check out our Bawdy Storytelling Fiends and Fans group on Facebook - it's a place to discuss the podcast's stories with the storytellers, share thoughts with your fellow listeners, & help Dixie make the podcast even better. Just answer 3 simple questions and you're IN! https://www.facebook.com/groups/360169851578316/ Thank you to the Team that makes this podcast possible! Team Bawdy is:   Podcast Producer: Roman Den Houdijker Sound Engineer: David Grosof Storytelling support by Mosa Maxwell-Smith Dixie's Virtual Assistant is Roillan James Video & Livestream support from Donal Mooney Bawdy's Creator & Host is Dixie De La Tour & Thank you to Pleasure Podcasts. Bawdy Storytelling is proud to be part of your s*x-positive podcast collective! Website: https://bawdystorytelling.com/ On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bawdystorytelling/ Like us at www.Facebook.com/BawdyStorytelling Join us on FetLife: https://fetlife.com/groups/46341 Support us on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/Bawdy Watch us on YouTube at http://bit.ly/BawdyTV Find out about upcoming Podcast episodes - & Livestreams - at www.BawdyStorytelling.com/subscribe  

This is a rereleased episode from October 26, 2023. Rebecca Grant is a national security analyst based in Washington, DC and president of IRIS Independent Research, a small, woman-owned business specializing in defense and aerospace research and national security consulting. She has appeared on TV as an expert on national security for Fox News, Fox Business, and CNN. She is a series regular on The Smithsonian Channel's Air Warriors. Dr. Grant writes on China, Russia and other national security topics for Fox News Opinion. Her military books include 75 Great Airmen (with Lt. Gen. Chris Miller), The B-2 Goes to War, and Battle-Tested: Aircraft Carriers in Afghanistan and Iraq.Socials:Follow on Twitter at @NucleCastFollow on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/nuclecastpodcastSubscribe RSS Feed: https://rss.com/podcasts/nuclecast-podcast/Rate: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/nuclecast/id1644921278Email comments and topic/guest suggestions to NucleCast@anwadeter.org

Pope Clement V ordered the arrest of all Knights Templar and seizure of their properties on 22nd November, 1307: a day that sealed the fate of the once-celebrated Christian military order. They had attracted the ire of Philip IV of France, who began an international conspiracy to smear their name. Founded in 1118, the Knights Templar initially served as protectors for pilgrims travelling to the Holy Land. Over time, they became wealthy and influential, with a system of castles, churches, and even banks across Western Europe. Many aristocrats, drawn by the prospect of being both monks and knights, joined and supported the order, contributing to its extensive holdings. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly examine the bizarre charges chucked at the Templars; explain how Philip's crusade against them solidified the concept of Friday the 13th being unlucky; and consider how the knights *may* have taken their revenge, via the ‘Templar's Curse'...  Further Reading: • ‘Whatever happened to the Knights Templar?' (The Guardian, 2011): https://www.theguardian.com/uk/the-northerner/2011/jun/27/whatever-happened-to-the-knights-templar • ‘Why Friday the 13th Spelled Doom for the Knights Templar' (HISTORY, 2017): https://www.history.com/news/why-friday-the-13th-spelled-doom-for-the-knights-templar • ‘Why the Templar Secret Rituals Were So Controversial' (Smithsonian Channel, 2017): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlMwvp-0m7c Love the show? Join

Rebecca Grant is a national security analyst based in Washington, DC and president of IRIS Independent Research, a small, woman-owned business specializing in defense and aerospace research and national security consulting. She has appeared on TV as an expert on national security for Fox News, Fox Business, and CNN. She is a series regular on The Smithsonian Channel's Air Warriors. Dr. Grant writes on China, Russia and other national security topics for Fox News Opinion. Her military books include 75 Great Airmen (with Lt. Gen. Chris Miller), The B-2 Goes to War, and Battle-Tested: Aircraft Carriers in Afghanistan and Iraq.Dr. Grant graduated from Wellesley College and earned a PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics, University of London.EPISODE NOTES:Follow NucleCast on Twitter at @NucleCastEmail comments and story suggestions to NucleCast@anwadeter.orgSubscribe to NucleCast podcastRate the show

When German hikers Erika and Helmut Simon stumbled upon a dead body in the Oertzel Alps on 19th September, 1991, they believed it to be a recently fallen mountaineer, whose cadaver had been preserved in the ice. In fact, the specimen turned out to be 5,300 years old - older than Stonehenge and the Pyramids. The man, nicknamed ‘Ötzi' by the press, had been struck down in mid-stride, and was discovered surrounded by his possessions, which included a copper axe. His remains are now on permanent display in Italy. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly probe into the various theories about how ‘the Iceman' died; reveal what the post-mortem told us were the contents of his last meal; and consider the ‘Curse of the Frozen Mummy'... Further Reading: • 'The Discovery of Otzi the Iceman and Its Significance' (ThoughtCo, 2020): https://www.thoughtco.com/otzi-the-iceman-1779439 • ‘Who killed Oetzi the Iceman? Italy reopens coldest of cases' (BBC News, 2017): https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-40104139 • ‘Was Otzi the Iceman a Victim of Human Sacrifice?' (Smithsonian Channel, 2015): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUVtJ8oqRWA #Discoveries #Italy #Switzerland #BC Love the show? Join 

In today's heartwarming episode, Patty welcomes Craig Colby, an award-winning executive producer with a fascinating story to share. Craig's journey takes us from his impressive career producing content for networks like Discovery Channel, ESPN Plus, BBC Earth, and the Smithsonian Channel to a surprising pandemic-induced obsession with hats. This newfound passion led to an extraordinary bonding experience with a community of friends, inspiring Craig's book "All Caps: Stories That Justify an Outrageous Hat Collection," which later won the Canadian Book Club Award for Best Nonfiction Book of 2022. The memoir isn't just about caps; it's about connections and memories associated with each hat. Craig shares touching stories, like a miraculous encounter with the Toronto Maple Leaves that brightened his son's darkest days. This episode reminds us to find happiness even in the face of adversity and to cherish the moments that truly matter. Find more about Craig and his wonderful book below: Website: https://www.colbyvision.net LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/craig-colby-1225683/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/craigcolby6/https://www.instagram.com/all_capsbook/Xhttps://twitter.com/CraigColby1 Your Daily Chocolate is in the top 25% of most shared, and most followed podcasts worldwide, so let's boost it up even higher. Take 10 seconds today and share the show with some friends that you know will love it, and make 2023 an even brighter year for those you care about. Please consider supporting this podcast with a modest contribution here - just hit the "support" button to continue to hear good news from big name inspiring guests - Ad free! Be sure to subscribe to the newsletter at yourdailychocolate.com for extra content and all sorts of good stuff. If you like the show, please rate and review, or share it with anyone you think would like a little good news in their life. You can also subscribe to Your Daily Chocolate on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or your preferred platform. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/patty-deutsche/support

Market Proof Marketing · Ep 298: Building Certainty For The Uncertain Builders with Julie JarnaginIn this episode, Kevin Oakley is joined by our very own Julie Jarnagin to talk about her new book Building Certainty! Julie gives us an inside look into what she believes to be the most valuable takeaways as well as her reasons for writing this book in the first place. Content can be a source of pain for builders, but Julie has simplified the process and created a guide to make it that much easier!Kevin and Julie discuss:Her NEW book "Building Certainty" which you can buy here!What chapters Julie thinks will benefit builders the most.Kevin appreciates in chapter two there is a list of things to “talk about” which kills the excuse that builders usually have when it comes to creating content.The value of the table of contents, why it's helpful and how it works like an index.Building certainty with your brand for your customers. It's not about you, it's about whether or not your customers feel that you can take care of them.Questions? Comments? Email show@doyouconvert.com or call 404-369-2595 and we'll address them on the next episode. More insights, discussions, and opportunities in the Market Proof Marketing Facebook group.Subscribe on iTunes > https://now.doyouconvert.com/mpm-itunesFollow on Spotify > https://now.doyouconvert.com/mpm-spotifyListen On Stitcher > https://now.doyouconvert.com/mpm-stitcherA weekly new home marketing podcast for home builders and developers. Each week Kevin Oakley, Andrew Peek, Jackie Lipinski, Julie Jarnagin, and other team members from Do You Convert will break down the headlines, share best practices and stories from the front line, and perform a deep dive on a relevant marketing topic. We're here to help you – not to sell you!Transcript: KevinAll right. She thought we had already talked about it. And we did. Everyone knows now the building certainty by Julie has been written, but I was like, No, the people need a full interview of just you. There's not an audio book currently, right?JulieNo, not an audio book.KevinSo for those of of those people in the audience who are more like my kids, prepping for school by listening to their books are supposed to read over the summer, I don't know how I feel about that, but some people might need some more like insight in an audio format in order to encourage them to do something that apparently no one does anymore, which is actually read a book.JulieI love it. Well, this is fun. I've never done it from this side. I mean, obviously I'm on the podcast pretty regularly, but never in this seat before where you're interviewing, I guess me. So this is.KevinFirst of all, we have to celebrate and I think we did this a couple times on social media, but people are buying your book. Yes. They read it and implement it. You know, fingers crossed. Hopefully you do good for your business and good for your career. But people are buying the book. It's already it's already fantastically successful, number one, in Amazon under real estate for new releases.KevinI think for long. So who knows? Yeah, I like the fact that you get equally nervous discussing such things as I do.JulieYeah, I know, I know. Well, it's a world like, I don't know. Some people know I used to write fiction, so I have fiction books out, but this is the still different. So this has been fun and it's been fun seeing people say, Oh, I bought multiple copies for my team. It's just it's been fun and the support has been great.KevinYeah. All right. Well, let the hot seat begin. The pleasantries are over.JulieOkay, I'm ready.KevinAnd my main question for you is there are nine, ten, ten chapters in the book. Are there a couple of chapters where you feel like not not the ones that are your favorite to write or you learn the most when you're researching or looking into something, but that you feel like people need. Like a lot of times a little more context.KevinWhen you work with 80 different homebuilders around the country, people are always like, How do you know what to talk about or insight? Because we just you can tell what people need. This was definitely something that people needed. But what are there particular chapters that you think people need more than more than others? When you look at what what folks are doing in today's landscape?JulieSure. One is that probably the shortest chapter. Well, except for the last one, just kind of worksheet. But chapter five is all about like, what do we prioritize? I think what we see with a lot of builders that we're like, Hey, how's content going in the room? Because it encompasses so much and then they just don't know which of those many things that are out there should I actually be working on.JulieSo it's about how to assess what you're currently doing, look at the needs of the company, look at what's out there in the future and how to actually figure out like, okay, what do we actually need to focus on right now and what do we need to start putting into place for the future? So that's kind of a short, quick chapter, but it's also helping them focus in on out of all these things we've talked about in the book, what what do I do first?KevinYeah, I think if you focus on those things that are most important, then you can start building momentum. And a lot of times people just get stuck. And like I talked to someone yesterday, well, we we partner with a company right now to help us create content. I talk to them for a half hour and then four or five weeks later they'll give me something in writing about what we talked about that she's just like, it just feels so slow and hard and it doesn't seem like this is the right, right way to be going about it.KevinSo I think we need to send them a copy of the book and I'll be helpful. But I agree. I think people don't. They're often disillusioned by response to content out of the gate. Mm hmm. I go I always go back to the podcast regularly. Now it gets 500 listeners per episode or so, sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less.KevinI think the first like six month, well, first two months. Anyway, that we did the podcast, there was like 30 to 50 people and you're like, Is all this worth it? All this prep and getting the technology in place and all the rest. So if you focus on what's most important and the reason why is most important, hopefully it gives you momentum to keep going.KevinSo I love that one. Is there another one that you like? Yeah.JulieI think just the beginning of the book that kind of lays out what is content, why do we need it and just kind of a foundation, because it is a word that people throw around. And so some people, when they think of content, they think of social media and some people think of content and they're just thinking renderings and photos on my site.JulieBut it's all of those things and more and I think I'm a very analytical person. I like a list. So in a way, a lot of the beginning of the book was just breaking things down into pieces where even if some of these things you just know from being in your role, it also is seeing it all in a structure of what topics are we going to cover, what mediums are we going to use, you know, photos, videos, whatever.JulieHow are we going to distribute it then? How are we going to analyze it? It just kind of lays it down in a framework that you can start wrapping your arms around because it's just large.KevinYeah, I think chapter two could have been its own like book in a way as well, which is just what topics should we cover? Which I thought you might say that one, but here's, here's my answer anyway. Why? Number two is extremely important and useful, but I wouldn't have picked it either, is the answer really is stop thinking that everything around you is boring or mundane and just relent to the fact that you need to talk about it all.KevinYou need to have content related to everything. So in chapter two starts on page 22, ends on page 46, and has all I mean, the table of contents anyway, alone. There's two and a half pages of things you can talk about. So that's, that's like excuse wiped away. There is no excuse of, well we don't have anything to talk about.KevinWe're just a fill in the blank. We're just a first time home builder and all these people say this to us. Well, I only build 20 luxury homes a year. Well, I only build on your lot. And that's like, stop saying only. It's all interesting to to a certain audience.JulieAnd the reason I included all of those two is because I think we get stuck in one thing, like, Oh, I've done a million walkthroughs of my house and I've done a million testimonials. It's like there's other you can take the same things and take a different angle at them. I think the real magic that comes in all of these topics is when you start combining more than one topic.JulieSo if you want to feature a floor plan, well how about also grab, you know, people who've lived with that floor plan and you're mixing the people, the homeowners and the floor plan. So a lot of it is just like kind of walling all those topics out on the table. So then you can start mixing and matching and instead of having to use your mental capacity to think of those topics, you can start using that creativity to then put together new and unique things to solve your problems and engage customers and all those good things.KevinAnd I think the fact that people go down that habitual path is a clue to actually the right answer with some with some nudging to get out of a rut is like I remember your former employer. There is this period of time where like every I don't know, I seem like every couple of days or once a week there was a Matterport walkthrough with an audio example and you went through a whole bunch of that, that library because you developed a process and a framework and the strategy and a why.KevinAnd once that momentum got going, it was relatively easy to keep it going. And I think that's what I really enjoy about the book, is it kind of unlocks that, Yeah, just do that. But on a on a different tangent from a different perspective or for a different purpose, again, like the same piece of content, the same advertising channel can be used for multiple reasons.KevinAnd I go to my generally least one of my least favorite forms of media in billboards of a billboard can be a complete brand message, or it can be a turn right here. Message the neighborhoods right around the corner. It's the same. It's the same platform, but used for a different purpose. And that changes everything about how you're thinking about it.KevinSame thing when it comes to content. Am I trying to educate someone? Am I trying to motivate someone? Am I trying to just not be boring? Because this is a complex subject and I need to break it into pieces that people want to absorb. I think it's just a fantastic, fantastic resource. Now, I can't remember I asked you this on the podcast or not, but it's worth asking again, when you wrote this, did you envision people going through it from beginning to end first and then using it as a resource to kind of get back around where you need it?KevinBecause it is I would say it's very snackable in that sense of like, again, you're like, I don't have time to read 130 pages.JulieYeah, I really have two ways I think about it being is, number one, somebody who's been in their role for a long time, they know what content is, but they just need that little bit of like inspiration and, you know, to get them on stock, like you said. And that way it would be very good to just grab the pieces you need and flipping through it as you're, you know, you're stuck on something to possibly spark something.JulieThat's one reason I left the whole when somebody was helping me with the formatting, they put that whole huge table of contents in and at first I was going to remove it and then I was like, You know what? It's actually going to be really helpful for somebody because it almost works like an index. It's like an index that the first of the book, because if they are struggling with maybe some storytelling content and they're wanting to get ideas for that, they can go straight to that part to talk more about their people in their company and their culture and all of those things.JulieThen on the other hand, it's also going to be a good resource for somebody comes in new to your department from another industry, and you just need to get them up and running like you're our new social media person. But I've never been in homebuilding. I feel like it also will give those people just a good foundation to read it cover, to cover and just, you know, have a beginning place of this is this is the basics of content and where to start and where to start looking.JulieAnd it just gets them up and going faster. So I think it does more than one thing.KevinYeah, I would agree with that. I as you, as you were just talking, I was remembering the dummies books, the series.JulieYeah.KevinFor Dummies.JulieOh. And it's yellow.KevinAnd it's yellow. So I was like, you know what? This is almost like content marketing for dummies. Not not in, like, the condescending sense of the word, But there were certain topics where I would buy those books. For those of you who, like the other day, someone didn't know the song Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice. So I am constantly reminded of how old I am.KevinThe dummies series was on every topic known to man, and it was kind of like in textbook format, but it tried to be entertaining as much as possible around every subject matter. But there were. There were some of those I would buy like Calculus for Dummies in college that was clearly just like, I need I need a supplemental.KevinLook at that topic. Go read it. Okay, I'm good. It was a reference piece for me. And then there were others where you just from cover to cover. You're like, I just need to start at the beginning and be led all the way through. And the same book could be used either way. So I think that's important. Okay.KevinWhy the name building certainty?JulieWell, I totally ripped that off from Kevin Oakley.KevinHe was giving you a given.JulieYeah, he. He promised he wouldn't sue me for that. So I think it was Summit's a couple of years ago.KevinYou're 29.JulieAnd part of your message was what is marketing? It's building certainty through content. So we were looking at content and marketing from that, from that viewpoint. So then when I start working on a book and started working on title, I just took that for you. And I think right now it is always what content should do. But right now, more than ever in the markets that we've been in is that's what we have to use it for.JulieYeah, it's the basics of like, what do we build, Where do we build it? What does it cost? That's, that's number one. You need to have that. Your website needs to have the basics. That's number one to content. If you don't.KevinThink it's worth, it's worth repeating slightly differently for everyone. Is pricing on your website is content that build certainty in one direction or another. And so even something as mundane as some companies have every price and then a909 for like even that there there needs to be thought put into it. I used to joke with people all the time, you know, when you just when every price change or adjustment this is in 2008 2000 and 2010 and we would publicly change pricing to match market versus promotions like you can't just every price change can't be ten grand or five grand or 15 because well, that clearly communicates to someone paying attention forever, subconsciously as someoneKevinis when, you know, sticks their finger up in the air. I think 10,000 less like why is it always around number round numbers are too convenient in something as complicated as what we do. It's just one. One small example of everything is content that can build certainty.JulieYeah, all the basic stuff. And then just building certainty with with the rest of it. The story building, you know, telling your story, talking about your brand. All of that in the end isn't just to talk about yourself because nobody cares. Nobody cares about your brand and your what they care about is that, you know, you're going to take care of them and that you're going to solve their problems.JulieSo it's looking at all your content from that different angle. Then it's just, you know, I'm going to slap something up there about us. It has to be about the home buyer.KevinAbsolutely. I think like the other day, my brother in law was in town from Sweden and he's he's watching all the cruise ship documentary things on the on Smithsonian Channel. And I saw ads for the first time in a while on television. And it was just every time there was commercial break extra, extra, extra, which if you don't know what extra is, it's just an office chair and it's from all accounts, like I love the chair that I have.KevinIt's fantastic. I have no desire for additional chair. But they talk about this chair in words and in depth that my brother in law was just like, You see this chair? This chair is like the best chair in the world. I go, I mean, it looks like it's cheap materials with a massage and heat function to me and it's chart and they're charging like triple what they should.KevinBut it just goes back to that. The care like that is a lot of times what people are thinking of what they want. Marketing to do is to increase absorption, increase the sales volume of a company. But there are a lot of people listening where your company is not really in that game. Your company's in the business of maximizing revenue per unit sold or margin.KevinIt's a higher end product. And so if you're talking about like if you're can you imagine buying something from what's like the cheapest furniture IKEA. Yeah like well yes an IKEA is unique in that they've really overindexed in the amount of content to help people understand what it is they're getting in a digital format. In particular, they're one of the first to have like air show this thing in your house.KevinBut we can still use IKEA if you are going to buy a sofa from IKEA or a sofa from Pottery Barn or I don't know, Henry Don Like if the amount of written content and imagery and the quality of such is on par, you would never buy it. You know, it's only the the overall and I think that's the other word that I think if I want to suggest book number two is in the series of content is something around the idea of curation because that's I just I think that more and more of that is that's what five chapter five is really about.KevinIt's like, why, why this and not that? And so it's it's both breadth and depth, but also curating it for an intended audience with that intended purpose.JulieYeah, I mean, I think the book is proof that there's plenty of plenty of things to talk about, plenty of ways to do it. It's then taking a step back and looking at what's most important for your home buyer and what's most important for the home builder, for whatever where you are in the in the market. So I think that's what I see with builders.JulieSometimes they're jumping out in front of things, trying to do content before just pausing it. Does that have to be a big, huge thing? Pausing, thinking through messaging, thinking through the final goal. Look at the what is the goal of this content and then working backwards through creating it.KevinAnd I think one of the final like master level things to uncover and understand that sometimes you're creating content as a marketing team that's not for you at all. Meaning it's not for the website, really. It and everything should be there. But I would say a good portion of the content I created in my career prior to coming over to do Convert was creating content specifically for the use of of others in a 1 to 1 interaction framework here.KevinHere is content that helps a salesperson overcome a specific objection as a proof source, as a packaged, curated solution to an objection that they need some help overcoming. It's not, it's not it's almost usually not the broadest possible audience that you can you can reach because it's hard to do that really, really well. And this is where I'm thinking about people like Tilson who have done such a good job, really going narrow and deep in their subject matter to create a really loyal and and devoted audience and what they do.JulieI mean, kind of on that, on that same realm, what I also see is people who create a great piece of content and then it goes out in one specific place for one specific moment. And it's like, why? Like I see this, this is great. Did you send it out in an email? Did you give it to your sales team?JulieIs it somewhere on your website? You know, it's just using those great things. You guys create in more places so more people get eyes on them.KevinYeah, the number of times we still hear Where is this on your website? Oh, it's not. It's just on our YouTube channel or just on on Instagram. And we're like, Huh, What? Yeah, And strange. Still still some challenges to overcome. Awesome. All right. Well, we look forward to giving a copy of this to everyone who's coming to the summit.Kevin350 additional copies there. Julie will be around to sign and engage. And you're going to talk a little bit more about the book as well. So, yeah, this is this is a big one. I I've had now seven people, I think just that I didn't even know that they were buying it. They just send me a picture. Is there a contest going on that I don't know?KevinWhy are people sending me pictures of them holding your book? Then maybe they maybe they need your number. So they're like, Look, I got it. This is awesome. Like, great. Tell you.JulieThey're excited.KevinYeah, yeah, yeah. That's fantastic. All right, well, thank you from the industry for for spend all the time and energy to put this together We need it.JulieYeah. Thank you. And most of all, as I was writing it, really, the only goal was to add some value for it to be something that you guys could use and be homebuilder specific. I've read a ton of marketing books and content books. It's like, Well, that's cool, but doesn't really fit. So really, that's all it's for is just for, for you all to get some, get some good ideas out of it.KevinYeah. So we can't wait to see all the stuff that people make. Hmm. Yes. Friendly kick in the tush. Mm hmm. On the ball.JulieNo excuse.KevinAll right, Awesome. Go get your copy and link in the show notes. Tell us how you're using it as well. We can share that with others and give them ideas of of how you're using. I have heard of book clubs and and the like, and there's some other term there that I'm missing. But people are doing it in little groups, too, which is fun to see.KevinAll right. Thanks, Julie.JulieAll right. This is fun. Thank you.KevinThanks for joining us. On another episode of Market Proof Marketing can't wait for the next one or looking to connect with other new home marketers. Become a member of our private community, the UIC all access, which is 100% free and always will be, get exclusive content not shared anywhere else. Access to private events and the ability to join a marketing impact group with other marketers like you around the country.Visit our link in the show notes or members. Do you convert dotcom to join? All opinions expressed by me Andrew Peek, Jackie Lipinski and our cast mates are solely our own opinions. Now get to work and make sure your company is market us.  The post Ep 298: Building Certainty for the Uncertain Builder With Julie Jarnagin appeared first on Online Sales and Marketing for Home Builders - DYC.

Phil Keoghan returns to talk about The Amazing Race! Find out how he got the gig, what other reality show host was up for it too, and what it really takes to film the incredible race around the world. Phils also talking about his bungee jumping world record, the Nude Awakenings TV show he hosted and how that may have indirectly inspired the Austin Powers movies, and the scuba diving accident that nearly took his life when he was 19. Plus, Phil reveals some of the crazier items on his bucket list, and gives a little 411 on his new Smithsonian Channel series, Flying High.

Today my guest is Brad Orsted, an award-winning wildlife and conservation filmmaker/photographer, author, speaker and wilderness therapy instructor. Brad's work has appeared on Nat Geo Wild, The BBC, PBS, Nature, The Washington Post and Smithsonian Channel. Brad's most recent film, “The Beast of Our Time: Grizzly Bears and Climate Change” is narrated by none other than Jeff Bridges. The film recently won Best Environmental Film Award at the Los Angeles Film Festival. We will be discussing his new memoir, “Through the Wilderness: My Journey of Redemption and Healing in the American Wild”, available now wherever books are sold. But before we jump in, I'm excited to share that I have made a lot of progress on my book “How to Quit Drinking, A 12 Step Exploration Guide. Overcome barriers to entry, Clarify Misconceptions and access a process of transformation for an alcohol-free life”.    The first chapter is available now as my gift to you, just visit 12stepexplorationguide.com, enter your email address and it will be automatically delivered to your inbox!    The purpose of this book is to share everything I wish I could say to someone who wants to break free of their addiction and is thinking about giving the 12 steps a shot. My goal is to help alleviate fears around attending meetings and clear up some common misconceptions, which there are many.    But this isn't book isn't about invalidating anyone's negative experiences, in fact it's my attempt to validate them and offer a safe path through the process in order to help people who want to quit drinking and live alcohol free.   As the book progresses, I will be sharing some of the suggestions and practical strategies from additional chapters. My goal is to provide the information to the people who need it now because the book is still going to take some time to complete. If you need support now, and you're either not ready to try 12 step or want to, you can always work with me directly through my private coaching program. I utilize both hypnosis and compassionate recovery coaching to help you reach your goals. Just visit soberlifeschool.com to book a strategy call with me.   And if you haven't signed up for the weekly newsletter with additional resources I find on the interwebs, you can find it on the soberlifeschool.com website as well. So that's it for the intro today. Please enjoy this episode with Brad.   Connect with  here: Visit Website: https://www.bradleyorsted.com/ Follow on Instagram: @brad_orsted Subscribe So You Don't Miss New Episodes!   Listen On:   Apple Podcasts https://apple.co/30g6ALF   Spotify https://odaatchat.libsyn.com/spotify   Amazon Music      Watch Full Episodes on YouTube! https://bit.ly/2UpR5Lo  

Windsor became the official surname of the British Royal family on 17th July 1917, when King George V issued a proclamation declaring that “The Name of Windsor is to be borne by His Royal House and Family and Relinquishing the Use of All German Titles and Dignities.” The decision to change the family name came amid strong anti-German feeling following air raids over London, and in particular the bombing of a school in the East End by Gotha bombers - by coincidence, the same name as the royal family. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly discover who was responsible for picking ‘Windsor' as the family's new name; uncover the Royal Albert Hall's flawed response to the onset of World War One; and reveal the REAL Royal surname… Further Reading: • ‘British royal family change their name to Windsor' (The Guardian, 1917): https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/from-the-archive-blog/2017/jul/17/british-royal-family-windsor-name-change-1917 • ‘Jeremy Paxman: A hundred years of Windsors but still the Queen is partly German (FT, 2017): https://www.ft.com/content/b80a9dde-f1f0-11e6-95ee-f14e55513608 • ‘'The British Royal Family Needed to Seem Less German During WWI' (Smithsonian Channel, 2019): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZaOlJajows #Royals #WW1 #Germany  Love the show? Join 

The Exhibit, on MTV and the Smithsonian Channel, introduced America to the wonderful, brilliant Baseera Khan, and she joins Studio Noize to talk all about it. Baseera has been making her performances, sculptures, and installations for years, and her work explores materials and their intersections with identity. She talks about being on the show, her approach to exploring materials, and her life's many facets. We discuss her solo exhibition, I Am an Archive, at the Brooklyn Museum and the ways that experience changed her view of her work and herself. We learn more about her psychedelic prayer rugs, her upcoming project for Highline Park in New York, and some of the work from The Exhibit. Listen, subscribe, and share!Episode 167 topics include:making art on The Exhibitmeeting all the artistsusing identity in artpsychedelic prayer rugsI Am an Archive exhibition at the Brooklyn Museumbeing an artist during the pandemicdealing with rejection as an artistthe excitement of exploring materials how your practice can change after a big projectBaseera Khan is a New York-based performance, sculpture, and installation artist who makes work to discuss materials and their economies, the effects of this relationship to labor, family structures, religion, and spiritual well being. Khan is currently working on a public art commission on The High Line for fall 2023. Khan mounted their first museum solo exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York (2021-22), and opened their first solo touring exhibition in Houston, Texas at Moody Arts Center for the Arts, Rice University (2022-2023). Khan has representation at Simone Subal Gallery, New York where they mounted their first solo exhibition called Snake Skin (2019). They have exhibited in numerous locations such as Wexner Center for the Arts (2021), New Orleans Museum of Art (2020), Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism, Munich, Germany, Jenkins Johnson Projects, Brooklyn, NY (2019), Sculpture Center, NY (2018), , Aspen Museum (2017), Participant Inc. (2017). Khan's performance work has premiered at several locations including Brooklyn Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, and Art POP Montreal International Music Festival. Khan completed a 6 week performance residency at The Kitchen NYC (2020) and was an artist in residence at Pioneer Works (2018-19), Abrons Art Center (2016-17), was an International Travel Fellow to Jerusalem/Ramallah through Apexart (2015), and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2014). Khan is a recipient of the UOZO Art Prize (2020), BRIC Colene Brown Art Prize and the Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors Grant (2019), was granted by both NYSCA/NYFA and Art Matters (2018). Their works are part of several public permanent collections including the Solomon R. Guggenheim, Whitney Museum of American Art, Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Walker Art Center, MN, and the New Orleans Museum of Art, LA. Khan's work is published in 4Columns, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Artforum, Art in America, BOMB, Brooklyn Rail, and TDR Drama Review. Khan is an adjunct professor of sculpture, performance, and critical theory, and received an M.F.A. from Cornell University (2012) and a B.F.A. from the University of North Texas (2005)See more: www.baseerakhan.com + Baseera Khan IG @baseerakhanPresented by: Black Art In AmericaFollow us:StudioNoizePodcast.comIG: @studionoizepodcastJamaal Barber: @JBarberStudioSupport the podcast www.patreon.com/studionoizepodcast

Every great show needs a well-dressed superstar host, and on The Exhibit, we had Dometi Pongo! JB and Dometi go behind the scenes of the MTV and Smithsonian Channel's art competition show and talk about the cast, the challenges, the art, and the memorable moments that didn't make it to the screen. Dometi explains where his love for art started and how his curiosity made him the perfect person to host a show with so many different art styles and personalities. He talks about work on TV, his latest work with the Pongo Strategy Group, and some exciting new partnerships that will produce more great content soon. We can't level without hearing about his trips back to Ghana. It's more of that good art talk on the Noize! Listen, subscribe, and share!Episode 166 topics include:hosting The Exhibit on MTV and the Smithsonian Channelhaving a love for artcuriosity as a hostimpressions of the cast of The Exhibitmemorable moments for the showthe Pongo Strategy Group producing the type of shows people need and wanttraveling back to Ghanabeing in the room where decisions are madeDometi Pongo {pronounced dō-meh-TEE} is the host of the hit MTV docuseries True Life Crime and multiple MTV News franchises, including its flagship program, “Need to Know,” which provides award-winning analysis of trending news stories. Pongo's work lives at the intersection of pop culture and social justice. In addition to hosting red carpet activations for Paramount's tentpole events (like the Video Music Awards, Grammys, and MTV Movie & TV Awards), the Chicago-born journalist helms a number of Smithsonian Channel programs exploring topics spanning hip-hop, pop culture, and American history. Pongo regularly joins senior leadership in moderating company-wide discussions on equity in Paramount's “Courageous Conversations” series led by MTV Entertainment Group President Chris McCarthy. His illuminating reporting and perspective can also be heard in his role as contributor to ET Live and Sirius XM's Karen Hunter Show. The award-winning journalist also works as a speaker and multimedia consultant through his firm, Pongo Strategy Group, which helps organizations tell better stories through multimedia. In partnership with Sankofa Ventures, Dometi's annual group tours of Ghana, West Africa provided more than 70 American travelers from the African diaspora an opportunity to explore their ancestral lineage.See more: https://www.dometi.net + Dometi Pongo IG @dometi_Presented by: Black Art In AmericaFollow us:StudioNoizePodcast.comIG: @studionoizepodcastJamaal Barber: @JBarberStudioSupport the podcast www.patreon.com/studionoizepodcast

It is Black Maternal Health Week, and this week's episode provides context and value-based solutioning on how to address the alarming rise of maternal mortality in the U.S. We have horrifically poor maternal health outcomes in the African American population of our country, and it is directly attributable to a flawed design of our healthcare system juxtaposed with the presence of longstanding and systemic institutional racism. If there ever was an opportunity for improving health equity through value-based care, it is with this moral imperative to ensure the fundamental human right to have a safe and evidence-based childbirth that optimizes the chance of survival. On this week's podcast, you are going to hear from one of the leading voices in health equity, reproductive justice, and value-based maternal health. Our guest is Dr. Neel Shah, the Chief Medical Officer of Maven Clinic, the world's largest virtual clinic for family health care. He is also a visiting scientist at Harvard Medical School where he previously served as a professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology. Dr. Shah has been recognized with the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Humanitarian of the Year Award from the March of Dimes for his impact on maternal health in the United States. He is featured in the films Aftershock, which won the Special Jury Prize for Impact at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, and The Color of Care from the Smithsonian Channel and Executive Producer Oprah Winfrey. As a physician-scientist, Dr. Shah has written landmark academic papers on maternal health and health care policy, and contributed to four books, including as senior author of Understanding Value-Based Healthcare. He is listed among the "40 smartest people in health care" by the Becker's Hospital Review, and he currently serves on the advisory board of the National Institutes of Health, Office of Women's Health Research. In this podcast, we discuss a special documentary that Dr. Shah contributed to called “Aftershock”. This inspiring film on black maternal health equity turns pain into power and should be watched by all who strive to make a positive change in American healthcare.  Join us on April 12th, for a screening of the Aftershock documentary and a discussion with other attendees.   This podcast is dedicated to Shamony Gibson, Amber Rose Isaac, Kira Johnson, Maria Corona, Sha-Asia Semple, Cordielle Street, and the thousands of women who have lost their lives in the United States maternal health system. Bookmarks: 01:30 Black Maternal Health Week and the fundamental human right to have a safe and evidence-based childbirth that optimizes the chance of survival. 02:15 Introduction to Dr. Neel Shah, one of the leading voices in health equity, reproductive justice, and value-based maternal health. 03:30 AFTERSHOCK, is an original documentary on black maternal health equity.  (Watch Trailer and attend special free virtual screening on April 12th). 04:00 Support Race to  Value by subscribing to our weekly newsletter and leaving a review/rating on Apple Podcasts. 04:15 This podcast is dedicated to Shamony Gibson, Amber Rose Isaac, Kira Johnson, Maria Corona, Sha-Asia Semple, Cordielle Street, and the thousands of women who have lost their lives in the United States maternal health system. 05:30 Since 1970, we have seen a 500% increase in C-Section procedures over vaginal deliveries, with the rate of C-sections among black birthing persons being much higher than the general population. 06:00 C-sections bring in an average of $10k per procedure, compared to an average reimbursement of $4,500 for a vaginal delivery. 07:30 “Childbirth is the most utilized healthcare service in the United States of America and accounts for 25% of all hospitalizations.” 08:30 The opportunity to extract more “value” in the maternal health system. 08:45 “In childbirth, we predominantly have a “too much too soon” problem. One in three receive a major surgery to give birth,

Straight from MTV and the Smithsonian Channel, we got one of the stars of The Exhibit, Jennifer Warren! We've been watching Jennifer do her thing the last few weeks on the art docuseries as the self-taught artist in the group, inspiring viewers with her beautiful oil paintings. Jennifer and your boy, JBarber, discuss the experience of being on reality tv; what her regular life is like back in Chicago, and how she's looking to build an art career. We get to know the woman behind the wonderful work on the tv show and JB shares advice with her as she starts her journey into the art world. Listen, subscribe, and share!Episode 165 topics include:Competing on The Exhibit on MTV and Smithsonian Channeloil painting in Franceenvisioning an art careerhaving a full-time job vs being a full-time artistdoing artwork without a communitymotivating yourself to make artplanning to make a new series of artswitching from a corporate job to artnetworking advice for artistsbuilding a career and a familyJennifer Warren Bio:“I am a Chicago-based oil painter making work that explores themes around nature, beauty, and the Black body. As a largely self-taught artist, my practice reflects my passion for incorporating new ideas and techniques that aim to convey the lived Black experience through everyday intimate and meditative moments. My work has been exhibited at the Martin Gallery, Chicago, IL; the Sidney Larson Gallery, Columbia, MO; and in Saatchi Art Virtual exhibition. I graduated with a BA in International Business and minor in Visual Arts from Eckerd College and attended a Painting and Drawing program at the Leo Marchutz School of Fine Art in France. I currently live and work in Chicago, IL.”See more: www.jenniferwarrenart.com + Jennifer Warren IG @jenniferwarren_artPresented by: Black Art In AmericaFollow us:StudioNoizePodcast.comIG: @studionoizepodcastJamaal Barber: @JBarberStudioSupport the podcast www.patreon.com/studionoizepodcast

The new docuseries The Exhibit from MTV and the Smithsonian Channel debuts tonight! The six episode docuseries will follow seven American artists who will compete for a presentation at the museum and a $100,000 cash prize. The cast includes your boy, printmaker, Jamaal Barber! Yes, your boy is on national tv, and it was quite the experience. You might see me on the tv and all over the internets but he's bringing the real talk to the fam, the day ones. Right here on the Noize! JBarber gives his thoughts on the eve of the show and talks as much as he can about the process, the rest of the cast, and what you can expect. Plus he talks about what these types of opportunities can mean to artists and gives his hopes for what comes out of this. Tune in and let us know what you think of the show! Listen, subscribe, and share!Episode 161 topics include:The Exhibit on MTVbeing on national televisionmaking art outside your comfort zoneDometi Pongo and Melissa Chiu as the host of The Exhibitjudges Adam Pedelton, Abigail Deville and Keith Richardswatching yourself on tvwhat opportunities mean to artistsmaking art to be freeThe Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is teaming up with MTV Studios to create the six episode docuseries The Exhibit, which will follow seven American artists who will compete for a presentation at the museum and a cash prize.Following a nationwide search, participants were selected in consultation with Hirshhorn curators. The group includes printmaker Jamaal Barber, Onondaga artist Frank Buffalo Hyde, designer and sculptor Misha Kahn, painter Clare Kambhu, multimedia artist Baseera Khan, video and performance artist Jillian Mayer, and painter Jennifer Warren.See more: ArtNews: Who Is the Next Great Artist? A New TV Series from the Hirshhorn and MTV Aims to Find Out + MTV The Exhibit Presented by: Black Art In AmericaFollow us:StudioNoizePodcast.comIG: @studionoizepodcastJamaal Barber: @JBarberStudioSupport the podcast www.patreon.com/studionoizepodcast

Aviator Charles Lindbergh (‘The Lone Eagle') was a household name when his 20 month-old son, Charlie Jr (dubbed ‘The Eaglet') vanished from his nursery on 1st March, 1932, sparking a nationwide media frenzy. The kidnappers left a ransom note demanding $50,000. After a further 12 exchanges of correspondence, the Lindberghs were told their son was onboard a boat called Nellie: a boat which was never found. At his sensational trial, immigrant Bruno Richard Hauptmann pleaded not guilty, but was convicted of murder in the first degree and sentenced to the electric chair. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how the Police matched Hauptmann to the abduction; reveal how Al Capone got caught up in the crisis; and ask where all the forensic botanists have gone…  Further Reading: • ‘The Tragic Story Of The Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping' (All Thats Interesting, 2021): https://allthatsinteresting.com/lindbergh-baby-kidnapping • ‘60 Years Later, Doubt Clings to Lindbergh Baby Kidnaping Case' (Los Angeles Times, 1992): https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-02-09-mn-3355-story.html • ‘How They Caught the Lindbergh Baby's Kidnapper' (Smithsonian Channel, 2013): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpwduHFPqHk #30s #Crime #Mystery Love the show? Join 

ICYMI: Later, with Mo'Kelly Presents an in-depth conversation with NAACP Image Award Nominated film director and producer Muta'Ali, regarding the new Smithsonian Channel documentary “Cassius X: Becoming Ali,” which explores Cassius Clay's transformation into global sports icon and activist Muhammad Ali…PLUS – Thoughts on actor Bruce Willis' diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia AND push back from Culver City residents against Hollywood gentrification on KFI AM 640 – Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app

Before Yuri Gagarin, before Alan Shepard… a chimp called Ham was blasted into space for six-and-a-half minutes of weightlessness on 31st January, 1961. He successfully returned to Earth without serious physical injury, albeit over 100 miles away from NASA's intended splashdown location. Travelling at 5,857 m.p.h, Ham was seated in a special chair called a ‘biopack', which administered electric shocks to the soles of his feet if he failed to complete basic tasks in orbit. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly consider how Ham's schooling had striking parallels with the training undertaken by human astronauts; reveal just how much of him is actually ‘buried' at the International Space Hall of Fame; and explain the fate of the SECOND chimp in space, Enos, who wasn't quite so lucky…  CONTENT WARNING: animal cruelty, animal experimentation and dissection Further Reading: • Meet Ham The Chimp, The Animal Astronaut Who Changed History (All That's Interesting, 2021): https://allthatsinteresting.com/ham-the-chimp • ‘Ham the astrochimp: hero or victim?' (The Guardian, 2013): https://www.theguardian.com/science/animal-magic/2013/dec/16/ham-chimpanzee-hero-or-victim • ‘NASA's First Chimp in Space' (Smithsonian Channel, 2019): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wdbV4SBGYo #60s #space #science Love the show? Join 

Our story continues with the second of our three American Girls this week with the legendary Jennie Jerome, the very first one to marry into the British peerage.All sources and additional recommended reading can be found at doneanddone.com.Continue your investigation ad-free and bonus episodes on Patreon!Further Reading:The Husband Hunters: Social Climbing in London and New York, by Anne de Courcy (Amazon.com)Million Dollar American Princesses, a Smithsonian Channel documentary series (Amazon.com)The Titled Americans: Three American Sisters and the British Aristocratic World into Which They Married, by Elisabeth Kehoe (Amazon.com)Jennie Churchill: Winston's American Mother, by Anne Sebba (Amazon.com) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this first episode of this American Girls trio of episodes, we celebrate the life of Consuelo Yznaga, the first American Girl to marry a Duke, the highest rank in the British peerage. Consuelo makes her match to the Duke of Manchester, but it is for her transatlantic marriage brokerage talents that this duchess is far more remembered.All sources can be found at doneanddone.com.Continue your investigation ad-free and bonus episodes on Patreon!Further Reading:The Husband Hunters: Social Climbing in London and New York, by Anne de Courcy (Amazon.com)The Transatlantic Marriage Bureau: Husband Hunting in the Gilded Age, by Julie Ferry (Amazon.com)To Marry an English Lord: Victorian and Edwardian Experience, by Gail MacColl and Carol Wallace (Amazon.com)Million Dollar American Princesses, a Smithsonian Channel documentary series (Amazon.com) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this first episode of this American Girls trio of episodes, we celebrate the life of Consuelo Yznaga, the first American Girl to marry a Duke, the highest rank in the British peerage. Consuelo makes her match to the Duke of Manchester, but it is for her transatlantic marriage brokerage talents that this duchess is far more remembered. All sources can be found at doneanddone.com. Continue your investigation ad-free and bonus episodes on Patreon! Further Reading: The Husband Hunters: Social Climbing in London and New York, by Anne de Courcy (Amazon.com) The Transatlantic Marriage Bureau: Husband Hunting in the Gilded Age, by Julie Ferry (Amazon.com) To Marry an English Lord: Victorian and Edwardian Experience, by Gail MacColl and Carol Wallace (Amazon.com) Million Dollar American Princesses, a Smithsonian Channel documentary series (Amazon.com) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Our story continues with the second of our three American Girls this week with the legendary Jennie Jerome, the very first one to marry into the British peerage. All sources and additional recommended reading can be found at doneanddone.com. Continue your investigation ad-free and bonus episodes on Patreon! Further Reading: The Husband Hunters: Social Climbing in London and New York, by Anne de Courcy (Amazon.com) Million Dollar American Princesses, a Smithsonian Channel documentary series (Amazon.com) The Titled Americans: Three American Sisters and the British Aristocratic World into Which They Married, by Elisabeth Kehoe (Amazon.com) Jennie Churchill: Winston's American Mother, by Anne Sebba (Amazon.com) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Summary Seth Abramovitch (Twitter; LinkedIn) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss the British war-hero who spied on behalf of the Japanese during Hollywood's Golden Age. This is a story-and-a-half, by jingo!  What You'll Learn Intelligence How a British war-hero became a spy for the other side Japanese espionage in Tinseltown  How the story involves Boris Karloff, Charlie Chaplin and Yoko Ono's father  The spy ring's activities before and after Pearl Harbor Reflections Playing the game for yourself vs. for a country or a cause Hubris & Nemesis  And much, much more… Episode Notes Squadron Leader Frederick Rutland, AM, DSC and Bar, was the first person to fly a seaplane from a ship in history. He was also the first man to spot the German fleet from his seaplane, thereby precipitating the largest naval battle of the First World War, the Battle of Jutland.  After leaving the military because of indiscretions with a fellow officer's wife, Rutland tries to live an ordinary vanilla life, but still craves his action-packed days of old…ultimately, he is approached by the Japanese to teach aviation and to spy on their behalf, which leads him to relocate to LA during the Golden Age of Hollywood.  To discuss this doozy of a story, I am joined by Seth Abramovitch from the Hollywood Reporter – i.e., the definitive interpretive voice of the entertainment industry – where he has worked for ten years.  And… There are some incredible Hollywood movies from the interwar period, capturing some of the tension and suspicion of the era, as well as the faint drumbeat of approaching war. Hitchcock alone had, The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), The 39 Steps (1935), Sabotage (1936), and Foreign Correspondent (1940). Major stars of the era such as Marlene Dietrich, Great Garbo, and Madelaine Carroll helped solidify the spy genre with movies such as Dishonored (1931), Mata Hari (1931), and I Was a Spy (1933). Don't forget Fritz Lang's Spione (1928), which has been called a, “marvel of narrative economy in montage.”  Quote of the Week "At the very bottom of the list, it would be any kind of allegiance to any flag, because he's quick to offer to turn on Japan when push comes to shove at the very end of the whole story. I don't think he was doing it for any kind of nationalism or political, viewpoint. I think if anything he was apolitical." – Seth Abramovitch. Resources Headline Resources “Beverly Hills Spy: How a WWII Era James Bond Betrayed the Allies,” Seth Abramovitch, The Hollywood Reporter (2022) Andrew's Recommendation Reel vs. Real CIA – The Americans, Argo, Black Panther, and the Good Shepherd *SpyCasts* “Russia Upside Down” – with Creator of The Americans Joe Weisberg (2022) “The Courier” – the Director's Take with Dominic Cooke (2021) “Hollywood Spies” – with Jonna Mendez (2020) “U.S. Naval Intelligence in WWII” – with Rear Admiral Donald Mac Showers  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Beginner Resources Spy for Japan, T. Bradbeer, Historynet (2022) [webpage] The Pacific War, WELT (2021) [video] FBI Raid Japanese Spy Network in LA, Smithsonian Channel (2019) [video] Books Intelligence & the War Against Japan, R. Aldrich (CUP, 2000) The Emperor's Codes, M. Smith (Bantam, 2000) Articles “Agent Shinkawa Revisited,” R. Drabkin & B. Hart, IJIC, 35/1 (2022) The 1924 Law That Slammed the Door on Immigrants, Smithsonian Magazine (2020) Washington Naval Conference, 1921-22, State Dept. Historian, State (n.d.)  Russo-Japanese War, 1904-5, State Dept. Historian, State (n.d.)