Podcasts about Southern Germany

Last year I went to an exhibition at the Städel museum in Frankfurt that was entitled Holbein and the Renaissance in the North. That is the elder Holbein, the father of the Holbein who came to England. This exhibition has now ended, but there is still a great summary available on the Städel website.Though obviously not present at the exhibition, one key focus was the Fugger chapel in the church of St. Anne in Augsburg, one of the earliest and most significant Renaissance building north of the Alps. I wanted to kick off this episode with this chapel and then move on to Holbein, Burgkmair etc. But as I dug deeper and deeper into the late 15th and early 16th century art in Southern Germany, the more connections and links emerged that I hope you will find as fascinating as I did.Links to artworks:Fugger chapel: Die Fuggerkapelle | St. Anna AugsburgRiemenschneider Heilig Blut Altar: The Altar of the Holy Blood | ReliquarianThe Hare: Young Hare, 1502 - Albrecht Durer - WikiArt.orgSchongauer St. Anthony: Martin Schongauer | Saint Anthony Tormented by Demons | The Metropolitan Museum of ArtRhinocerus: Albrecht Dürer | The Rhinoceros | The Metropolitan Museum of ArtRitter, Tod und Teufel and other works: Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) - The Metropolitan Museum of ArtThe music for the show is Flute Sonata in E-flat major, H.545 by Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach (or some claim it as BWV 1031 Johann Sebastian Bach) performed and arranged by Michel Rondeau under Common Creative Licence 3.0.As always:Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.comIf you wish to support the show go to: Support • History of the Germans PodcastFacebook: @HOTGPod Threads: @history_of_the_germans_podcastBluesky: @hotgpod.bsky.socialInstagram: history_of_the_germansTwitter: @germanshistoryTo make it easier for you to share the podcast, I have created separate playlists for some of the seasons that are set up as individual podcasts. they have the exact same episodes as in the History of the Germans, but they may be a helpful device for those who want to concentrate on only one season. So far I...

Hello, I'd really like to grow this email list. If you enjoy this newsletter, it would mean the world to Jola and I if you encouraged one friend/fellow immigrant/colleague to subscribe…Very likely, the the only thing you will get in return is warm fuzzy feelings, and if I can attribute it to you, I'd personally send you a thank you email.Join us as we explore the bitter-sweet world of the immigrant.In this episode, I'm speaking to Dikachi Chizim, who moved from Lagos, Nigeria to Freiberg, Germany for an MBA.Germany isn't the typical destination for skilled Nigerian immigrants, especially in the past five years. According to Dikachi, even the Germans she met in Freiberg, a town of over 40,000 in Eastern Germany, were surprised she moved to their town to study. “Well, I came to study because tuition was free,” she says. But the culture shock was dramatic. Now, this isn't surprising if you've been to both or any of the two cities. Lagos and Freiberg are different in every measurable way. From population to density to the economy to the urban character to the language. “I was lost,” Dikachi says. Getting a student job became the unlikely path to understanding the language and how the country worked.In this conversation, Dikachi and I chat about dealing with the contrast between Nigerian "African time" and famed German punctuality. We also explore:* How her workplace became more valuable for integration than her international student community* Passing her Nigerian cultural heritage to her German-born daughter* The surprising differences between Eastern and Southern Germany's social climate* Why optimism might be an immigrant's most valuable assetOfficial Links✅ Follow Dikachi on LinkedIn✅ Sign up for Dikachi's Thinking Out Loud newsletterOne AskIf you found this story helpful, please forward or share it to one immigrant out there. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thenewcomerspod.com

This Devotional address with Elder David A. and Sister Susan K. Bednar was delivered on Sunday, March 9, 2025, at 5:00 PM MST in the BYU-Idaho I-Center. David A. Bednar was ordained and set apart as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on October 7, 2004. Prior to his call, Elder Bednar served as an Area Authority Seventy, as an Area Authority, as a Regional Representative, twice as a stake president, and as a bishop. Elder Bednar was born on June 15, 1952, in Oakland, California. He served as a full-time missionary in Southern Germany and then attended Brigham Young University, where he received his bachelor's and master's degrees. He also received a doctoral degree in organizational behavior from Purdue University. After completing his education, Elder Bednar was a professor of business management at Texas Tech University and at the University of Arkansas. He then served as the president of BYU-Idaho from 1997-2004. Elder and Sister Bednar were married in the Salt Lake Temple on March 20, 1975, and they are the parents of three sons. Susan Kae Robinson Bednar was born and reared in Afton, Wyoming. She is the daughter of Kay and Nyla Clement Robinson. Sister Bednar graduated from BYU with a bachelor's degree in Elementary Education. She taught first grade for two years and was involved with institutions of higher education with her husband at Texas Tech University, the University of Arkansas, and BYU-Idaho. In the Church Sister Bednar has served as Primary president, Primary chorister, Young Women president, Gospel Doctrine teacher, and ward organist.

In November 1414 30,000 academics and aristocrats, bishops, blacksmiths and bakers, cardinals, counts and chefs, doctors, dancers and diplomats, princes, prelates and public girls descended on a town in Southern Germany built to house 6 to 8,000 people. They planned to stay a few weeks, 2-3 months max. But 3 and a half years later most of them were still there. What did they get up to? The great tentpole events, the trial of John XXIII, the burning of Jan Hus and the election of Martin V is what the council of Constance is remembered for, but what about all that time in between?This world event was so much more than a papal election and the trial of a heretic. For 3 years Constance became a never-ending G20 summit, the greatest academic conference of the Middle Ages, a permanent imperial diet and the centre of the catholic church. Everybody who was anybody was there either in the flesh or had at least sent a delegation. Issues and concerns were brought before the council that still plague people today. Is it ever right to kill a tyrant, and if so, when can it be justified? What rights should be guaranteed for indigenous groups, in this case Pagans, and how should their dignity be protected? Other attendees sought justice for crimes committed against them or their families in a world where political murder had become commonplace. Others still demanded their reward for years of service, making the house of Hohenzollern the margraves of Brandenburg.Living cheek by jowl in tiny Constance the leading minds from across Europe, from the ancient universities of Paris, Oxford and Bologna as well as from the newly founded seats of learning in Krakow, Prague, Heidelberg and Vienna shared their ideas, opinions, books and discoveries, paving the way for the intellectual shift we call the Renaissance.Enough, me thinks to provide 30 minutes of great historical entertainment….Chapters:00:13 - The Council of Constance: A Gathering Like No Other03:31 - The Council of Constance: A Gathering of Minds08:16 - The Gathering of Intellectuals at Constance12:57 - The Role of Book Hunters in the Renaissance24:23 - Political Violence in the 14th and 15th Century29:56 - The Debate on Tyrannicide at the Council of Constance35:21 - The Council of Constance and Its ImpactThe music for the show is Flute Sonata in E-flat major, H.545 by Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach (or some claim it as BWV 1031 Johann Sebastian Bach) performed and arranged by Michel Rondeau under Common Creative Licence 3.0.As always:Homepage with maps, photos, transcripts and blog: www.historyofthegermans.comFacebook: @HOTGPod Twitter: @germanshistoryInstagram: history_of_the_germansReddit: u/historyofthegermansPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/HistoryofthegermansTo make it easier for you to share the podcast, I have created separate playlists for some of the seasons that are set up as individual podcasts. they have the exact same episodes as in the History of the Germans, but they may be a helpful device for those who want to concentrate on only...

Tobi Lütke is the CEO and co-founder of Shopify. 20 years ago, he was just a German coder who emigrated to Canada to launch some ecommerce platform with another German. Now he's the world-renowned thought and tech leader who has revolutionized online shopping for billions. He's also the creator of many open-source libraries like Liquid, Active Merchant, and the Typo weblog engine. Tyler and Tobi hop from Germany to Canada to America to discuss a range of topics like how outsiders make good coders, learning in meetings by saying wrong things, having one-on-ones with your kids, the positives of venting, German craftsmanship vs. American agility, why German schooling made him miserable, why there aren't more German tech giants, untranslatable words, the dividing line of between Northern and Southern Germany, why other countries shouldn't compare themselves to the US, Canada's lack of exports and brands, ice skating to work in Ottawa, how VR and AI will change retailing, why he expects to be “terribly embarrassed” when looking back at companies in the 2020s, why The Lean Startup is bad for retailers, how fantasy novels teach business principles, what he's learning next, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded July 23rd, 2024. Other ways to connect Follow us on X and Instagram Follow Tyler on X Follow Tobi on X Sign up for our newsletter Join our Discord Email us: cowenconvos@mercatus.gmu.edu Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts here.

I've been taking a walk – and a train – in the Black Forest of southern Germany. I visited the ticket office in the town of Triberg, where the person behind the counter is sitting at a desk 20 miles away.Remote ticket office staff are already a reality on German railways, as staff are still able to give advice, take money and print tickets.But could video ticket kiosks catch on in the UK?This podcast is free, as is my newsletter. Get it delivered every Friday by signing up here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gordon Duncan, Mark Wilson and Gordon Dalziel are live from Southern Germany's biggest sports bar - Palm Beach in Stuttgart, for Friday night's Clyde 1 Superscoreboard. They're joined by members of the Tartan Army as we build up to Scotland's biggest game of the tournament, against Hungary on Sunday.We'll also be speaking to PG Ciarletta, brains behind Scotland's anthem "From Glasgow To Berlin" - and fresh from walking 1,000 miles to Munich from Scotland, Craig Ferguson joins us on the show. Plus - another Beat The Pundit live from Stuttgart, and your chance to win £400 on the Pundit Predictor with Call Robert.

New factories, a new logistics facility, a new sustainability initiative, a new management board, a new tech centre, company acquisitions and a host of new products planned for launch at the AMB show in September – the recent Ceratizit press conference was a real eye-opener. The manufacturer has invested hundreds of millions of Euros in its infrastructure since MTD magazine last visited its European facilities in 2019 and the transformation has been truly remarkable. By Rhys Williams. As one of the world's leading cutting tool manufacturers, you would expect a level of re-investment to maintain a robust growth trajectory and industry-leading position, but what we found at Ceratizit last month was a seismic shift with new factories popping up at pace. Starting our whistle-stop tour across the German border in Reutte, the Austrian birthplace of the Plansee Group back in 1921, the rate of evolution was evident. Kicking off the event with a presentation was Melissa Albeck; one of the three members of the ‘all-new' executive board. Setting the tone for things to come, Melissa informed the press of the 14 company acquisitions since 2002, an overview of the new board structure and the new production site in Kreckelmoos on the outskirts of Reutte. It was evident the change was rapid and there was more to come….There are also two new buildings in Kempten, Southern Germany, a new production site in Bulgaria and another in Poland, the introduction of additively manufactured carbide grades, the arrival of connACT – the new sustainability strategy with a roadmap to carbon neutrality, the Product Carbon Footprint and the upGRADE range of recycled carbide grades that includes the CT-GS20Y grade that will be presented at AMB in September. As a journalist with massive overwhelm and too many exciting things to cover, there's only one place to start – at the beginning… Following the presentation that whetted the appetite for what was to come, we toured the Reutte carbide manufacturing plant partially flattened by a catastrophic fire in 1996. From this disaster rose opportunity, a chance for Ceratizit to switch from acetone to water for its carbide manufacturing process – and the group is the only manufacturer in the world that applies this environmentally beneficial process to its 75 different grades of carbide produced at this site. With more than 2,800 different types of carbide tools and 6,800 different insert designations manufactured at Reutte, the company produces more than 80,000 carbide inserts every day from this one production site. Even in this longstanding facility, investment has been significant in new tungsten processing silos, pressure sintering plants as well as CVD and PVD coating technology and furnaces with specialist chemical processes for breaking down used carbide for recycling.  Much of the technology on show in Reutte was explained in more detail through afternoon presentations that were broken down into sustainability, innovation and additive manufacturing updates – all supplemented by live demonstrations.  Leading the Sustainability Drive Sustainability has become interwoven into the fabric of manufacturing and a push towards carbon neutrality is a long-term aim for most companies. The foresight Ceratizit applies to its growth strategy also incorporates its green credentials. The company has acquired Tikomet, GTP and Stadler in recent years – companies located in the US and Europe that recycle tungsten carbide. These businesses are foundation blocks in the company's drive to create a circular economy model for carbide. Subsidiaries across both continents are collecting cutting tools from customers with incentivised discounting that is claimed to see upwards of 87% of Ceratizit's carbide now entering the recycling chain. Ceratizit is continually reducing its mining of raw materials. The aim is to increase its share of raw materials remaining in the carbide production chain to over 95% by 2030 – a figure based on scrap recycling of sintered products.   The recycling model is proving a huge success with the company already ahead of its target to reduce CO2 emissions from the 2020 baseline figure of 191,000 tonnes by 35% by 2025. With targets to reduce this by 60% by 2030 and 90% by 2040, Ceratizit isn't only leading the way with this drive, it is setting new standards. This was presented with the company's new ‘Product Carbon Footprint' (PCF) – the first VDMA-verified standard for calculating and classifying the carbon footprint of carbide products. The new classification will provide customers with the carbon footprint journey and impact of their cutting tools, something that Ceratizit is tirelessly calculating for all its 64,000+ standard product lines. This information for all standard products is expected to be completed and available for presentation at the AMB show in September. Furthermore, as the company continues its sustainability drive, the PCF of each product will constantly be reclassified to demonstrate the ever-diminishing impact of products on the environment.  Pivotal to hitting its aggressive targets in the sustainability journey is a strategy to target every aspect of the business. This includes a switch to green energy, the introduction of green hydrogen, recycled packaging with 60% less CO2, solar parks introduced in India and Luxembourg, the 3D printing of carbide grades and much more. Investment Drive With fascinating insights into the transformation at the Reutte plant and a glimpse at everything from new products, sustainability, additive manufacturing and R&D; our afternoon trip consisted of a visit to the new Kreckelmoos facility in Tyrol on the outskirts of Reutte. This put the scale of the investment strategy into perspective. When you see the building from the outside, you might think it is a new hotel at first glance. A beautifully designed wooden facade, large windows reflecting the surrounding mountain landscape and lots of greenery. But what at first appears to be a wellness resort is a production facility built for the future. Ceratizit started construction on the site in 2019 and this was completed just over a year ago. With a gross floor area of 45,000sq/m and an overall manufacturing site of 370,000m3, the new facility won the German Design Award 2024 for ‘Excellent Architecture', an award that that recognises innovative and sustainable design developments. With its innovative energy concept, it sets an important foundation for a more sustainable future – in line with Ceratizit's corporate sustainability strategy. Comprising production halls, storage and logistics areas, offices and social rooms for over 300 employees, the site manufactures carbide tools, coating materials for displays, electrodes for glass melting and components for the semiconductor industry and medical technology.  The story of the new building began more than six years ago under the premise of growing further at the location in Reutte. But where? After an intensive search, a suitable building site was found on a former landfill site. The Breitenwang neighbourhood of Kreckelmoos is only one kilometre away from the main site in Reutte. The planning and concept phase was followed by the tendering process and finally the start of construction in March 2019. The moving-in process began in January 2023 and is expected to continue until the second half of 2024. This was evident with large areas of the facility still awaiting production equipment installation during the tour. Winning the German Design Award 2024, the site has an energy-efficient concept brought to reality with the use of thermal groundwater, heat pumps and photovoltaic systems. The 15,000sq/m extensively greened roof of the production hall also contributes to low energy consumption. This modern three-story building is also visually impressive. The visible timber supporting structure made of local spruce is particularly eye-catching. Using this naturally renewable building material has enabled low-emission construction, which perfectly fits in with the sustainability strategy. Supply Chain After a visit to a brand-new manufacturing facility, you'd typically think that you have seen the highlight of the trip, but in true Ceratizit fashion, the company raised the bar by organising a visit to the new logistics, distribution and supply chain centre in Kempten. Across the border in Southern Germany, MTD magazine visited the Kempten distribution centre in 2019 where plans were afoot for a new facility. Five years later, MTD magazine returned to see the new state-of-the-art logistics centre that was opened on Valentines Day 2021.  In the aftermath of Brexit, many UK manufacturers had valid concerns over supply chain continuity – an issue that never really surfaced for businesses working with Ceratizit. Credit to its slick supply-chain strategy and huge investment in the new site, over 65% of Ceratizit's European manufacturing output is delivered to more than 74 countries via the Kempten facility with 99% next-day delivery. Fundamentally quashing supply chain concerns. Whilst the previous site was a sight to behold and akin to an Amazon warehouse, the new facility takes automation to a new plateau. The new building has a footprint of around 17,000sq/m, which is similar to the previous site. However, with 99% automation, the new facility currently ships more products with less staff than the previous site – despite running at just 60% capacity. In numbers, the new site ships more than 24,000kg of products every day. This equates to upward of 90,000 product parcels being shipped to more than 4,000 customers with an average order value of over €500.  The level of automation at the new facility now sees 125 staff pick over 400 product parcels per hour compared to the previous 60 picks per hour, demonstrating the efficiency of the new site. With over 3500 boxes leaving the facility daily, it has a shuttle system that collects, stores and sorts more than 700 parcels that are delivered to the site daily from production sites around Europe. Undertaking this mammoth task, products are automatically added to and then collected from a 31-level holding area - each level is 60m in length with room for significant expansion to add to its current 400,000 storage spaces. From the colossal shuttle system, products are automatically delivered to specific picking locations where the staff operate under completely ‘fail-safe' parameters and where quality checks, as well as packaging, labelling and shipping tasks are undertaken. Dovetailing into this facility are standard and special products from the unfathomably diverse product portfolio and brands within the group as well as carbide products manufactured by Ceratizit for many of its competitors across Europe. Upstream from the slick logistics centre, Ceratizit has continually enhanced its customer-centric position with advanced technology that identifies customer behaviour and purchasing patterns. This ranges from the 24/7 tool supply via vending machines to complete e-commerce solutions that connect directly to customer ERP systems to expedite the procurement process – a behind-the-scenes investment that now sees special products manufactured and delivered in less than 3 weeks.  In the next issue of MTD magazine, we'll continue our insightful look behind the scenes of Ceratizit and its activities in Europe. We will also take a closer look at some of the exciting new product lines that will be arriving in the autumn. There are a multitude of product launches planned for the AMB show in September, so make sure you pick up our July issue to find out more.

Allen   Welcome passive traders. Welcome to another edition of the Option Genius Podcast. Today, I am here with someone that's going to blow your mind. I'll give you his name, you probably haven't heard from him. But what he says is going to make a big difference for you. So John S. Pennington Jr. in 2008, co founded a family of private investment funds that by 2021 had over $28 billion of assets under management and completed a successful IPO on the New York Stock Exchange. John then retired that same year but remains a significant stakeholder and is now partner Emeritus at the company. He has been married 38 years with three sons, five grandchildren, and he recently wrote a book which we're going to be talking about called Dollars, Gold, and Bitcoin. It's right here, I could not put it down, you can find it on Amazon and Audible. You guys need to get a copy of this book, because we are not going to be able to talk about everything in this book on this interview. John, thank you so much for being here. John   Allen, so good to be here. Thanks for having me. Allen   So now I have done. I have heard you speak in the past. And so a few podcasts, I don't should have looked at the episode, but it's one of the past episodes called billionaire lessons. I have talked a little bit and gone over some of the things that you presented on which were covered in your book as well. So it was one of our most popular episodes, really happy that you're here. I just want to get into it. So the book is titled dollars gold and Bitcoin. Now I've already you know, talked about your successful guy you're doing well. Why did you write this book?  John   When I retired, some people asked me to speak on stage. And I, you know, I didn't charge them. And I just went to these masterminds and I thought, What do I want to talk about? And, you know, I just I looked at what everyone else talks about. And I thought, well, I got to talk about something different. So I started talking about economics and the Federal Reserve and the strength of the dollar and how, you know, the dollar is just a fantastic product worldwide. And I actually, you know, followed the Federal Reserve and how they promoted the US dollar over the years, and how they nudged people to make their product more acceptable around the world. And I kind of used that formula. In my company, or me and my partner's company, as we grew, we kind of use the same type of tactics that the Federal Reserve and the US government has used over the years to promote their number one product, which is the US dollar.  And so so it's kind of a, it's kind of reflection of my business history. But it's also a reflection of how I studied and watched the the greatest product ever become the greatest product ever. How did it get there, and then I just kind of wanted to learn from the best. So I just kind of use those tactics with me and my partners to kind of push our business kind of the same way. So that's why I kind of wrote it.  Allen   Cool. Now, you know, the first time I heard you speak, I've heard you speak twice. And the first time and second time, I'm listening to you, and you are taking these what seemed to be very random events around the world. Yes. It's like, Oh, this guy said this, made this comment. And then this person visited this country, and then nothing happened. And then that happened. And then you took all of these to me, they were just random, you know, like watching the news. You story after story. But you took them and you whoa, this intricate, detailed story that linked them all together. And I'm like, Whoa, how does this guy think like this? how do you how do you come up with this? , John   I don't I don't know. I just I just I think as an entrepreneur my whole life, I started my, well, my career, but when I was a young man, I just was really slow reader. I wasn't a good, I wasn't a good student. And I knew that I could not survive in corporate America. I just knew it would eat me alive. It didn't I just wouldn't fit there. And so I knew I had to be my own boss. And that means I probably need to just start my own companies. And so I remember looking in the mirror and this is I think I was 17 or 18. And I said to myself, these words and and I I've repeated this in the mirror, every year, 10 times a year, whatever, I don't know how many for 30 something 40 years, but I said this to myself in the mirror of John, you're not afraid of being poor. And John, you're not afraid of being old, you're just afraid of being old and poor at the same time. And that is stuck with me to push myself in the areas of, I have to start my own business, I have to save money to take risk, right. And so I started 14 businesses in my lifetime ish. And three, I've made a lot of money on obviously, the one I did with the funds and still in it made a lot of money, I three I've lost money on and the rest of them in the middle, you know, I made some money on them, they were pretty good for a while. But you know, so over those periods of time, when you'd make good money on one, you have to save the money and live beneath your means. So that when the next opportunity comes up, you have a war chest to go and try again. Because if you try a business, and it doesn't work, you lose the time and money. And sometimes I might, I've had a couple of businesses in a row not work. So you spend 910 months getting a business launched, and then you wait six, seven months, it doesn't work, and you go on men 18 months later, and now you're kind of out of money if you didn't save, and then you have another idea come up, and then you try that idea. And that's going to take a year, year and a half to figure out and spend all the money. So you always I always live below my means way below my means so that I would always have a war chest to take risk until I really, really, really made it. And when I first started my first fund in 2004, and then my second fund in 2007. And my third fund in 2008. You know, I didn't really know if it was going to work, work, work work work until about 2013. And up until that time, I was driving a car with 200,000 miles on it, you know, so but once I got there, then I got a Mercedes, you know, a small number, say a used Mercedes kind of thing. And so, but I was always I always lived beneath my means because I just knew I had to be a entrepreneur. So what I'm getting at was my business antennas, my business antennas my whole life since I was 17. I had been up trying to read listen to receive things, right? And when I graduated college in 8898, with an economics degree which if you have an economics degree, there's not a lot of really, you're not trying to do much right unless you go on to get a masters or PhD trained. Well, what do you I'm saying, right? I didn't matter I had a degree in and I wanted to start my business. My first business that I started right at night, not my first business but but my first successful business right out of college is in 1989 Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, they took down the wall in Germany, there used to be a wall right down the middle of Berlin, a physical wall, and they took it down. And before that time, kids in Eastern Europe could not get American products. They can watch American TV or watch American movies, but they couldn't get made in USA products. And when that wall came down, there was a flood demand because the US was like this golden child. And everyone loved the US for about 99 About 95 They just love love, love anything made the USA was the best. And they wanted American huge Levi's. Or they want American Levi's jeans because Mr. Levi Strauss in San Francisco was the first guy to ever make denim jeans. And he did him with a button flying and the original was the button fly 501. Well, all over the all over the world. These were being sold for hundreds of dollars. They were a fashion gene but in the Western United States, we'd had them for 100 years they were worth jeans. We grew up with them in high school, right but so anyway, two of my partner's eventually moved to Southern Germany and I stayed in in Utah, and I collected us Levi fiber ones all over the United States, mainly the Western United States, cleaned them up, sewed them had seamstresses, scrubbing them, cleaning them up taking the stains off of them sewing, and it shipped to my partners in Germany, and they sell them to Prague and all over the western eastern states. So I could buy new fiber ones on sale for 1499 in Utah, and they would go for 100 $120 in profit. So I had my antennas up. And so when I found out early on in Ada or early on at nine that we had a friend over there in Europe saying that people were at you know, walking up to him on the street trying to buy his jeans on down for $100 100 US dollars. And we could buy them used at a thrift store over here for $6. What's the probability I can make a business so we I ran this business for nine years From 89 to about 1988 1998. We ran this was my first real big, huge business. And it was booming. I mean, we were doing a lot of jeans. I think our best year total sales was $8.5 million. US Levi's, I think that was 9094, maybe 95. Somewhere in there. But it was the fast business. And I had, you know, seems so what I'm trying to say is, you asked me the question, how do I think this way, right? If you have your business antenna up, always trying to receive some information, and someone tells you, hey, people in Austria are paying $100 For usually buy 501 jeans, and you live in a place where you can buy them for $10. You have to think of how do I make that into a business? What's the probability? Not the prediction? What's the probability I can make that into a business? And that was my first real run into business employees in Germany employees here. It was really a fantastic, great, like classic arbitrage. Yep. Just yeah, that's right. We were value adding we were cleaning them up, right. We were selling them. We were repairing them. But yeah, it was it was a kind of arbitrage. Take a product. That's a  in Nevada, or California or Utah. Move it to a place where it's a fashion gene and charge what the going rate is. Yeah.  Allen   Cool. Awesome. All right. So let's get into the book. Now. I think that correct me if I'm wrong, but the big topic or the big overwhelming subject matter of the book is how the Fed operates and how they boxed in Bitcoin, John   or the US dollar no sorry, or gold or US dollar or the Chinese yuan. The basic point of the book is, I use the example of trying to box Bitcoin in because it appears to be an a competitor to the US dollar. Right. Gold. One point is your was a part of the US dollar and competitive US dollar. And I go in the book, I dip into the Chinese yuan that has become trying to become a competitive US dollar and the Fed, Federal Reserve's  number, the US government's number one product, it sells better than hotcakes, people say it's selling like hotcakes. Well, they should start saying it's selling like the US dollar. So Allen, if I gave you $1 a second, right, like 123456. And I never stopped, never slept Neverland the restroom, it would take me 31.7 years to give you $1 billion. In other words, if you wanted to count to 1 billion, you would still be on the Zoom call this podcast 31 years from now. Right? So I tell them that on stage a lot because a lot of people misrepresent the word 1 billion they misinterpret it. They'll say John, I was just outside. And I saw this huge flock of birds, there must have been a billion birds. And I was gonna know there wasn't, you know how I know. I did the math. You know why I did the math. When my fund hit $1 billion. We started with managing $1 billion. It was like, holy cow, how much is a billion I started calculating it. 31.7 years of seconds. So when we talk about big numbers, I always do that on stage. So people really getting getting their head, how big $1 billion is and how erroneous that a lot of people use the term billion over time. So let me just do a little history for you. Okay. So, in 1914-ish, the Federal Reserve was created because there was a stock market crash in 1907, not not 2007 1907, the stock market crash. So they created the Federal Reserve. And then in 1929, we know there was a huge stock market crash again. So 1929, the country's really, really, really hurting. And then in 1933, two things happen. The SEC was created so that we would never have a crash again, okay. And in May 1933, now get this in May 1933, the president, FDR, he signed an executive order that made it illegal for your grandfather and my grandfather to own gold. So you had to sell all of your gold to the Federal Reserve. Or if you had a gold note, because it used to be that dollars were backed by gold, you had to sell your gold note your gold coin or your gold bars to the Federal Reserve. And they would give you a paper dollar for it. And then they would take that gold and put it in Fort Knox, and that gold would backup the US dollar and help us get out of the recession or the depression. And so if your grandfather, my grandfather was caught with five gold coins in their pocket, they could go to jail. This is United States of America. Okay, but it was patriotic, I think I think if you go back it was kind of patriotic. Like, we're all doing this together. We're all in together. We all have To support our number one product, the US dollar. Okay, so, so in that that was 1933. Okay. And so how long did that last year? 41? Obviously, so 1971 ish. Oh, wow. I'll get there in just a second. Okay. Yeah. So in 1944, we knew we were going to win the war. Why? Well, we were making 96,000 planes a year, and Germany was making 38,000 planes a year. We were making, I don't know if the numbers were making 21,000 tanks, they were making 4000 tanks. We just knew by math, we were gonna win the war. So 1944 44 countries sent 1000 people to a little place called Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. And they went there to reset the dollar. So the dollar was reset by the Federal Reserve in 2019 14. Then it was reset again in 1933, by the gold confiscation, and then in 1944, it was reset again. So what happened was at 1944, everyone agreed all the countries Listen, the French franc is no longer going to be backed by gold. The French franc is going to be backed by the US dollar. And the US dollar is going to be backed by gold. Why? Because this is a crazy Alan, this is a craziest This is in 1944, the United States had 66% of all gold bullion in the world. We had it here. And there are a couple of reasons. In the first part of World War Two, we didn't get involved. We were just selling our tanks, our steel, we're selling steel to Russia, they're paying us in gold. We're selling whatever to France, they're paying a single in a world war, one synth kind of same thing happened, you know, so, and we had a gold confiscation in 1933. It was illegal for a US citizen to own gold, but it wasn't in 1944. Say 1946. Okay, my granddad had a $100 bill. He couldn't turn that in for gold. But if you were a US, if you were a French citizen, and you had a $100 bill, you could turn it in for gold. Okay, so we have like we always do, we abused this thing called the world reserve currency. Okay, we abused it. And by 1971, President de Gaulle of France knew we had been printing too many paper dollars, okay. Too many paper dollars. So he sent two ships across the Atlantic with all of their US dollars. Okay. So he sends the two ships over, and he demands here's my US dollars, give me my goal. And on. It was a Sunday night, August 15 1971, President Nixon came on live TV and announced to the world. He said basically, this, market manipulators around the world are trying to hurt our US dollar. And so he said temporarily, we're going to stop having the dollar backed by gold right now. Right? So he just told to tape your show. You're not getting your gold, right. And that was a temporary fiat currency. And that has lasted till today. So it's 5354 years old ish, right? Our dollars 5354 years old. Okay. So, and it was Allen   supposed to be temporary? It was that it was supposed to be temporary?  John   That's what he said. He said, This is a temporary pause,  Allen   just like like income tax? John   Yes, exactly. So, but in 1990, am I gonna get my dates wrong? I was gonna do a cheat sheet because I don't want to mess my dates up. The 1960. The world reserve currency, the dollar was about 45% of all world reserve currency. Okay. In 2001, it was about 70 plus percent, maybe 78% of all world reserve currency is US dollars. And 19. In 2023. Just last year, my last statistics were 58%. Okay, so in 2023, US dollar is 58% of all the world reserve currency. The euro is 20%. Okay, the Chinese yuan is 2.7% of world reserve currency. Right? So we have a huge huge Headstart and a dominance with with our number one product across the world. And so we we mean you and everyone listening to this in the United States that use US dollars, we have an advantage where we we can go anywhere in the world and just throw our US dollars around and people will love them. Yeah, that's not true for other countries, right? You have to live in other countries. You just can't walk around and use your your fiat currency and just pay for things. And so we have a huge advantage. And so my question in my book is, how did that happen? How did we are the beneficiaries how do we become the beneficiaries of having most of the world use US dollars and In one way, in 1944, the Bretton Woods Agreement. No, it doesn't doesn't say this, okay. But this is kind of what happened. After World War One. Everyone's Navy is gone. China's Navy's gone. Japan's Navy's gone. Germany's Navy's gone, Italy's need is gone, France Navy's gone, everyone rushes Navy's got everyone's Navy is gone, the US has their navy intact, and Britain had some Navy still intact. Okay. And so basically what happened was we basically said, listen, navies are one of the most expensive things for a country to have. And if you just kind of agree to buy and sell your oil in US dollars, you don't even need anymore, we the United States will protect your shipping lanes. And so a little country anywhere in the world, if they buy and sell in oil in US dollars, then you don't need a navy anymore. And that allows us little countries sell their goods all over the world and take take their citizens from poverty levels up to you know, middle class. And so this is a phenomenon that's happened since 1944. Now, in 1971, when President Nixon did this, that's when our dollar became what's called the petro dollar. And that's when it really kind of heated up. And, you know, Saudi Arabia. So let's, let's just go to 1974. Okay, you live in Germany, and you want to buy a container of oil for Germany? You can't, you know, wire your Deutsche Marks from Germany down to Saudi Arabia. No, no, no, no, you have to wire your Deutsche Marks, using the SWIFT system, which will get back into the SWIFT system to the New York Fed, the New York Fed will then change your Deutsche Mark into US dollars, then you can wire US dollars to Saudi Arabia, then Saudi Arabia will send you oil, this creates insatiable demand for US dollars, right. And so to have a the number one product on the planet, by definition, you have to have insatiable demand, right? That's by definition, you have to have huge demand, right? So and the reason I know this, because we will make off the assembly line, we'll make a trillion dollars of our product, we'll make a trillion of them. And you and I will work 80 hours a week to get them more. The other people will lie, cheat and steal to get them right. They'll risk their lives on, you know, some crab ship in north north Pacific, you know, trying to get crabs and almost die trying to get more of these dollars. And then they'll will make another trillion and you Emil work 80 hours a week. Other people lie, cheat and steal. It's an insatiable demand for this product. And how did it get that way? And so to have insatiable demand, there's, I've outlined four ways in my book, one way is you tax your citizens in US dollars. So this year, I have to get us dollars to pay my taxes, I can't pay in cows, I can't pay in gold, I can't pay in Bitcoin. So that creates insatiable demand. Secondly, most countries around the world have to get us dollars to buy oil, because Saudi Arabia is the kingpin. Okay? That's it. That's the second way. A third way that you can attack a great is you create a worldwide Swift, bank to bank transfer system worldwide, where you transfer money back and forth. And it's a huge system, it's guaranteed, you know, bank to bank, and it's $1 based system. So if you want to transfer big large money from bank to bank worldwide, you have to have US dollars. And the fourth way to create insatiable demand is you can flood the world with low interest rate US dollar loans, that everyone has to pay you back for 30 years. So for 30 If you take one of these loans, for 30 years, you're gonna have to find us dollars to pay this loan back. Does that make sense? Now I'm going to stop there for questions. I got a few more things to say on that. But But do you want to any questions there Allen   that yeah, no, I'm totally with you. I mean, the SWIFT system is it's like basically, you know, you're forcing everybody to use your product, because you don't have a choice. I'm giving you money, and you have to use my system. And that's why, you know, when when they put all the sanctions on Russia a couple years ago, it was you know, supposedly, okay, we're gonna take you off the SWIFT system. Yeah. That was a mistake, big mistake. But it's like, oh, that was supposed to be the end of Russia as we know it.  John   But yeah, so I'm gonna get back to that in a minute. But that was definitely a mistake of the United States of America, because that hurt the glorification of their number one product, the US dollar, so let's go back to loans. Okay. Okay. All right. So the date is December 2018. Okay. The Federal Reserve says the economy is doing fantastic. Unemployment rate is low. You know, we're going to do next year in 2019. We're going to increase interest rates three times. Okay, great. Then less than 45 days later in December 2019, this is 45 days, they say, Oops, we made a mistake. We're not going to raise interest rates three times next year. We're going to lower interest rates three times next year. And I went, what just happened? I have an economics degree, right? Something huge just happened. I didn't know what it was. But I knew something big just happened. So I'm reading I got my antennas up trying to read everything I can. So March, a few months later, I read this report that says in Europe, there are $3 trillion $3 trillion of sovereign bonds, trading at negative interest rates. I have an economics degree. I've never read a book. I've never read a paragraph. I don't even know what a negative interest rate is. It's a bond that if you buy it, you're guaranteed mathematically to lose money. Why does that? Why would that even exist? Not in a couple billion, but 3 trillion? Why? That doesn't make any sense. Okay. And then a few months later in July, this is the summer 219, I read a new report. It's no, it's no, it's no longer 3 trillion, it's 14 trillion. What? There's $14 trillion. Okay, so then I think, okay, now I kind of know why the Federal Reserve lowered their interest rates almost to zero really fast. Because they're like, Listen, if you're going to borrow money around the world, you can borrow in Germany at zero. Or you can borrow US dollars at just a little above zero. So we're going to lower interest rates to compete, because we're trying to create insatiable demand for our number and product. And for the next three or four years, if you're just borrowing borrowing German and Spain dollars, right? That means you're not borrowing US dollars, right? And that's, that's not creating  in the future. So what did the Federal Reserve they lower interest rates, but that doesn't just do it, you have to actually go into the market. So think about what I'm about to say here. They lowered interest rates, plus the Federal Reserve went out, and they purchased bonds, $120 billion per month for over 30 months. Because when you buy bonds, buy bonds, buy bonds, buy bonds, buy bonds, the price of bonds goes up. And that means the yields go down. Right. So if every month I'm purchasing 100 billion $120 billion for the bonds, I'm keeping interest rates low, plus the Federal Reserve as interest rates low. So they keep it low for years and years and years, a few years. So that when you borrow money, you're least not borrowing someone else's money, you're borrowing our number one product, and that creates insatiable demand for their number one product. Does that make sense? Any questions? Yep. Yep. So my antennas again, back to your original question my antennas, how do I like this? My antennas are always looking for things that don't make sense. And then I try to read, how does it make sense? And when I keep putting the US dollar in the middle of things that don't make sense? It kind of makes sense. So I tell people, my book, I said, my book look, guys, ladies, I don't know if I'm right. I just I don't really run my life trying to predict the future because I don't think anyone can predict the future, right? I run my life on probabilities. And so I'm just saying the probability of me being right about the US dollar and being the number one product, Federal Reserve, and either US government and the Navy and whatever, I have a high probability of being correct, but I'm not I'm don't think I'm right. I might have a 20% probability I'm wrong. 80% that I'm right. If you don't agree with me that i Okay, fine. I agree. I might be 20% wrong, but just probability, right. So that's, that's where the essence of the book comes from. Allen   Right. Okay. Now, since you brought up the Fed, that was one of my other questions. It was in the book, you mentioned that, you know, the Fed is been out there talking a lot lately about oh, we want you know, our inflation rate to be 2%. We want unemployment to be a certain number, blah, blah, blah. But you're you've basically said that, that's what they're saying. But what they're doing is something opposite, and they actually wanted it to be much higher.  John   Yeah, so this is what happened a few years ago after the financial crisis. 2008 9, 10,  11 Okay. The world realize that the world is a lot more fragile than you think it is. So Germany, not in Germany, sorry, Russia and China started buying gold. And every year they bought more gold and we're going to 1013 they bought more gold 2014 They kept buying gold. And I was watching this going okay. You know it listen, if I if I ran China, I was president of China. I would not like the fact that I have to get us dollars to buy Oil, that. And so I'm not blaming China, I'm not blaming Russia, I'm just saying, I'm on this side of the negotiating table there on that side, I'm just explaining their side. So they might have got together and said, Listen, in the future, we think the US dollar is going to have some cracks in it. And if it ever has a big crack, we can introduce the Russian ruble and the Chinese yuan as alternative currencies. And therefore, then we can start buying oil in our own currency that they're planning in the future. I see US presidents are kind of like temporary employees. They're 40 years, Putin has been president for what 27-28 years, they'll probably be president for another 20 years. We don't know. Xi Jinping is usually I've said his name, right. He changed the Constitution, and allows him the option to be president for Life for life. Yeah, yeah. So these guys are long term strategist, our president has to get reelected. He's a temporary employee, so they have an advantage over us. Okay. So anyway, so then a few years back, China and Russia, say, you know, we should do let's start $1 called the BRICS dollar, we'll call it Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa. And these countries will come together and have their own dollar called the BRICS dollar that is going to be backed by commodities. So if you have a barrel of oil, you get so many bricks dollars, if you have a bushel of wheat, you get so many bricks, if you have gold, you get so many bricks dollars, and they've been trying to launch this for years. Okay, so, so obviously, the Fed seeing this, and that's a competitor to the US dollar, and it's going to be a competitor to US dollar. So the Fed is strategically trying to move around to to make sure that doesn't happen. And that might explain why, you know, Putin, one of the reasons Putin took over Ukraine, Ukraine has a lot of oil and a lot of wheat. And he's like, the BRICS dollars going to be real in a couple of years. If I have all this, we know I get more brickstone That might be one of the reasons, okay. So. So the Fed trying to in this last year and a half just or two years, raising interest rates, the Fed to protect their number one product, and this is this theory. And again, I know your some of your listeners are gonna say, John, you're just you're being way too conspiracy. But when there's a lot of money on the table, a lot of crazy things happen because people coordinate a lot of things. Anyway, I think it's coordinate because the US dollar is the waterline in the table. So a few years back, China started to try to buy oil from Saudi Arabia using the yuan, because China is a big oil importer. Okay. And so far, I think we so far, I don't think Saudi Arabia has done it yet. But and not just to convince Saudi Arabia not to do it. The Fed i Okay, let's, let's just hypothecate the Fed wants to hurt China wants to lower their acceptance of the yuan around the world, and you want only accepted by 2.7% of world currency. So it's not that big a threat yet, but it could be in the future. Okay. So China does it to themselves. They have a big huge that in the last two years, they have a big, huge real estate collapse. They have a big huge employment collapse. Hundreds of companies have moved out of China to Germany have hundreds of companies from Germany, Japan and the United States have moved out of China. They've gone to India, they've gone to Thailand, they've gone to South Korea, all countries that purchase their oil in US dollars. China has been trying to purchase oil, not using US dollars. So we got to hurt that we have to hurt that country, because Okay, so how can I hurt that country? Well, one, China has said they're going to de dollarized the world. China said we're going to start selling our US Treasuries. Okay. Okay. So what we can do so let's just say, the Federal Reserve to make sure every time China sells US Treasuries, they lose a lot of money, because they bought US Treasuries back when bond prices were low. So let's just say if the Fed wanted to get interest rates to five and a half 6%. Okay, I thought it was gonna go six and a half, but it went to five and a quarter, five and a half. Okay. They can't tell you and me, Alan, hey, you a US citizens. We're just gonna raise interest rates to 2% because inflation is 2%. And we'd go Yeah, that's okay. That's okay. But if inflation is 2%, they could never convince us that they can raise to five and a half percent. That'd be egregious, right? But wait, if inflation is 9%, then you and I would accept 5% interest rates. Right, right. We don't like it, but we realize everyone has. Okay, so how do I get it? How do I get inflation to 9% when it's been almost zero for years and years and years and years and years? You print a lot of money. You see inflation come along, and it goes from zero to 2%. And you tell everyone with your mouth, on a microphone, it's transitory. It's just transfer Everyone calm down. Then a few months later, it goes to 3% inflation. Now, we're not going to move rates, we're going to keep rates low, at a quarter percent, we're not going to raise them because transitory it goes to 4%. And they let it run, it goes to five, it goes to six. And then they say, Well, maybe it's not transitory, maybe we need to raise interest rates, then it goes to seven, they started raising interest rates, and it goes to nine, and they're able to raise interest rates to five and a quarter percent, the fastest rate in history. And they lit they stopped, they stopped them there. Why? Because if they every time, they have interest rates sitting at five and five and a quarter percent, every time China goes to sell their US Treasuries, they get killed financially, it kills them. So my conspiracy theory is, hey, if the number one job of the Federal Reserve is to protect and promote the US dollar, they have ancillary jobs, low unemployment, high GDP, I get it, but their number one job, their baseline job is to predict or promote the US dollar, then, if they have a competitor to the US dollar, China coming around, we need to crush China's dollar. And right now, China prints more money than we do. Because they're huge depression right now, because of all the things that happened to him. And so they're selling all this, you know, US Treasuries, because they have to, because they don't want to because they're losing money on it. Why? Because they're trying to keep their economy afloat. Now, the Fed is sending a message to Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia, aren't you so glad? That a few years back, you didn't start selling your oil in yuan? Because you would have billions of you want in your bank right now? And the yuan is tanking. Right. So people say now, five or six years ago, if you told me, I agreed China was going to take over the world, China was going to be a superpower with us now. I don't believe that anymore. Clearly. Okay. China has had 40 years of the fastest economy growth ever, right? No society has ever grown faster than China has last 40 years. And they're only 2.7% of the world reserve currency. So are you telling me if they have the same growth for next 40 years? They would be 7%? No, I'm saying. Allen   I have to interrupt this message. Because I am super excited. I haven't been this excited about something in trading since I first discovered trading options. Okay, it is that important. Now, look, this is a new strategy that I've discovered recently, that is just out there, kicking butt and taking names. I can't give you all the details here. But if you go to market power method.com and get all the information again, that's market power. method.com. Trust me, you want to know what this is. Now back to the show. John   And so when someone says we're going to replace the US dollar, I give them this example. And I love people in Arizona. I love Arizona, but I'm just gonna give this example. Okay, it's not it's just a hypothetical. Let's just say you and me agree that all the water in Arizona is bad. Okay, we both agree. What do you want to do? Well, we want to, we want to, we want to replace it with Gatorade, okay, so we searched the whole world for all the Gatorade in the world, and we bring it back. And it's not even a drop. We can't even, we can't even begin. So if you want to replace the US dollar, you have to replace it with something, you just can't not have it anymore. You have to replace the water with something. And there's not enough of anything that none of you want in the world, none of euros. There's nothing in the world big enough to replace the US dollar for years and decades to come. So the US dollar in the dominance is going to be around for a long time. Now the BRICS dollar, they're going to chip away at it right. So China, you know, is a net importer of oil, and they're a net importer of food. The United States is a net exporter of oil and an exporter of food. We have a geographic advantage over most countries on the planet. We can have a bad precedent, bad precedent, bad precedent, bad precedent, bad precedent. And we still kind of survived because we have things that other people don't have. The Mississippi Valley is two thirds of the country. Although arbitrary rivers, you can it's a slow moving river, you can put grain on that barge and floated anywhere. A lot of countries don't have that. And we produce a lot of oil and a lot of everything. And we just have a kind of an advantage over most countries. So China has got to, you know, build pipelines as quick as possible to Russia. They have to solve their oil problem, because without solving their oil problem, supply they You can't attack Taiwan. Because our aircraft carriers, our Navy could cut off most of their oil within 120 days. It all comes mostly over the water until China gets that pipeline. Right. And they know it. They know that they are. They're not ready. They have an Achilles heel. So let me give you a crazy thing that happened in in the news just last year. I'm reading the report watching the news. China brokered a peace deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Why? Doesn't even make any sense. But if you put the US dollar in there, it makes sense. So China is trying to de dollarized the world. They go to Iran, they say Iran, listen, who do you hate more? United States or Saudi Arabia? Oh, we hate the United States. Okay, fine. Okay, listen, if you want to really, really hurt United States, we have to de dollarized the world. Okay, how we're gonna do that? Well, one way is you can stop attacking Saudi Arabia, because the United States has an aircraft carrier off the side of Saudi Arabia to protect Saudi Arabia against you. And Saudi Arabia needs the aircraft carrier, and the F 30. Fives on their bases and 5000 troops in Saudi Arabia, they need all that. That's why they can't sell oil from Saudi Arabia to China and the yuan, because they have to keep being in good graces with the United States. Because Saudi needs that military protection. But Iran if you stop attacking Saudi Arabia, maybe this year, next year, Saudi Arabia goes You don't want we don't need military protection anymore. So we're going to start selling our oil to shock to China in the yuan. And then the the domino effect, the US dollar comes crumbling down over years, and the United States power around the world gets demolished. So again, back to my probabilities. The Alan, I don't know if I'm wrong. It just seems when I put the US dollar in crazy situations. It makes total sense. Now, a few months later, President Biden realized he was losing the battle in the the, you know, the whatever battle you want to call it in the Middle East. What does he do? He takes his number one product, the US dollar, and he sends I think about $6 billion to Iran in humanitarian aid. That's his number. I'm proud to say I ran I ran And we're still your friends. If you're gonna trade around the world, here's some US dollars to trade in. Right, Allen   right. Yeah, that came out of nowhere. It was like, what, what's going on? John   Why, why? Why? Why do you do that? Because a few months earlier, there was a peace agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Why? Because they want to de dollarized. They want to convince Saudi Arabia. They don't need us, Doc, but but the Fed is now still sending. There's two messages, right. And so about a year ago, year and a half ago, President Biden flew to Saudi Arabia. The thing about this, President states flies to see the prince. The prince didn't come to see him. He went to see the prince. Now we don't know what he said. Allen   And everybody made fun of him. Everybody, ever they funded media was all I got. I John   gotta give President Biden kudos. Right? Because I think I know what he was doing. I think he was over there convincing the Saudi prince not to sell oil in anything but US dollars. He creates because Allen   they had made an announcement. Before that happened. They had made an announcement that we're going to we're going to switch and we're going to do both or something that I remember something's right. Yeah. John   So if you ever take a negotiation class, okay. There is there's a lot of different ways to negotiate. But one of the ways one of the tricks in negotiation is you ask a question to your opponent, and then you let them try to answer it. So we I don't know what I don't know what President Biden said. But he could have said this. Okay. Mr. Saudi prince, if you start selling your oil to China in the yuan, all right. How am I as the US President going to convince the US Congress to pay for aircraft carriers off your coast 5000 troops on your soil, sell you f 30 fives, and then also give you satellite information from our secret satellites? How are we going to pay for all that? If you start selling your oil in you want then what you do in negotiation? You zip your lip, you shut up, you say no more and you sit back. And you you allow your opponent to try to very uncomfortably answer your question. And they sit there and go. Well, you can no you could you Oh, you know what? You know what, Mr. President, you can't convince Congress to pay for all that. Exactly. So therefore don't sell your oil to China in year one. And then a few years later, guess what? The Yuan is crashing because they're spending so much money. because we got interest rates up to five, because we want to win because we got the inflation to nine. So we five and now the Chinese economy look China did to themselves, we just poured gas on. Okay, one more example. That is. So we know of two people that sold a lot of oil not using US dollars. And that was Moammar Qaddafi of Libya, and Saddam Hussein of Iraq. Both of these gentlemen, I don't know how else to say it a few years after they did this large sales of oil without using US dollars. Both of these gentlemen were killed. They left the planet. And I'm not saying the US killed them. What I am saying is the US backed away from them, and let other people get them all the way, you know, take them out, right. So the last person that we know of that is doing oil and gas, not using is Putin. Putin said less Jaffa the war, he says, you know, after we took him off the SWIFT system, which we shouldn't have done, we should have left them on SWIFT system to keep them using US dollars. We took them on SWIFT system, we weaponize the US dollar. And that allowed China and Brazil go wait a minute. If the government the United States can seize my US Dollars anytime they want, then the US dollar really isn't a store of value. It's that yeah, that woke the world up a little bit. And we shouldn't have done it. Right, because our number one product is now damaged a little bit. Okay. But anyway, so Putin says, hey, you know, we're going to do so Putin goes into Ukraine and button think about the rhetoric. Biden says, We think Putin, you're a bad guy you gotta get out of Ukraine. Then Putin says, we're no longer selling our oil and gas, we're only going to take rubles and gold. Then Biden changed his rhetoric. Biden said, we now need a regime change in Russia. That's way different than saying we need you out of Ukraine. When you say I need a regime change, I think about Moammar Qaddafi, and Saddam Hussein. Right. That's a big difference. Okay. So what happened was a few months after that, after Putin says we're not selling, we're not selling oil and gas. With us dollars anymore. There's there's a pipeline, there's two pipelines that go under this was this was hilarious, isn't it? Yeah. There are two pipelines. They go from Russia under the Baltic Sea to Germany, and they sell Germany natural gas. Well, a few months after this happened that Putin said, I'm not going to take us dollars anymore. Someone with a submarine blew up. Nord Stream one and Nord Stream to Allen   someone we don't know who know, they claim responsibility, John   no responsibility. And I'm sure I'm sure that you know, President Biden, when he talks to the Saudi prince goes, Hey, Saudi prince, we're so glad you're still you know, selling all of your oil in US dollars. No one by the way. Did you hear about Nord Stream? One Nord Stream two? Yeah, crazy, right? We live in a crazy, crazy world. It's just I'm sure he reminds everyone this right? That you don't mess with the number one product the United States, you just don't mess with it. Right? So this is all these are all chapters in my book, at least the first half of the book, you know, a lot of economics that I'm trying to about. I'm just trying to get people to think on a different level. And a different thing that kids these days like to play these video games all weekend long, they'll go on three day weekend, you know, never go to sleep. Well, this what I've explained to you is the biggest game ever invented. Yep, there is no bigger game. And when I'm explaining to it's the biggest risk game, the biggest global game. It's the biggest game ever. And I'm studying it and watching it. And it is fascinating to me. And I don't even know if I'm right. But man when I keep doing probabilities, and it just seems I'm right.  

Join us on an incredible cycling journey with the Bennek family as they share their experiences of leaving behind their life in Southern Germany to embark on a unique family cycle tour.Discover the challenges and joys of bike travel with two young kids as Lorena and Gregor discuss finding the perfect balance between adventure and family life. Their journey is a testament to the power of trust, flexibility, and connection with nature, providing a fresh perspective on the benefits of slow travel and the simplicity of life on two wheels.Lorena and Gregor's experiences remind us of the beauty of living in the present, embracing spontaneity, and nurturing a sense of community no matter where the road takes us.Note: since the recording of this episode, the Bennek family has added a puppy named Maluna to their mix! They can't wait to hit the road again, albeit at a slower pace. Life is a journey, and they take it how it evolves!Catch up with Lorena & Gregor on their website, StraBenGiraffen, and follow them on Instagram at @strassengiraffen.Join our community at Warmshowers.org, follow us on Instagram @Warmshowers_org, and visit us on Facebook. Contact Tahverlee directly at Tahverlee@Warmshowers.org.Theme Music by Les Konley | Produced by Les KonleyHappy riding and hosting!

For those picking up War & Peace, deciphering the context of this era is a challenge. This episode is a great resource regarding the initial stages of the War of the Third Coalition in 1805.  France prevailed over the 1st Coalition in 1797 and 2nd Coalition in 1801. Afterward, France controlled much of Western Europe, including (from today's perspective): Belgium, much of Southern Germany, Switzerland, and various parts of Italy. Spain was also a junior partner of France. Napoleon was having success pushing for a reorganization of the German states, which included the Imperial Recess of 1803. This movement threatened the centuries-old interests of Austria, Prussia, and Russia.  The War of the Third Coalition began in the Summer of 1805. The Coalition had manpower of over a half a million, but they were spread out and not organized. For example, the Coalition had a presence in the Netherlands, Hanover (Northern Germany), Southern Italy, and Prussia. The Coalition was eager to invade Bavaria, a French ally. The Austrians wanted to pressure (through force) the Bavarians to align with them. The feeling was: what Bavaria does, so will most of the German states.Gen. Kutuzov led the largest contingent of the Czar's forces and was given the task of uniting with Austrians as they pushed into Bavaria. Kutuzov initially had to cover about 900 miles to link up. He started out with around 50,000, but by the time he arrived, only half his troops remained. In September, Austrian forces made the move into Bavaria. Kutuzov's forces were expected in early October, but were late. The march was slower than expected, leaving a wide gap between Austrians and Russian forces.  When Kutuzov arrived, his men were exhausted and ill-equipped. Nevertheless, the Austrians wanted to get their allies right into the fight, especially at Ulm. Kutuzov recognized this would be fruitless and held back.Napoleon grasped the situation and attacked relatively isolated Austrians, demolishing them at Ulm. He then turned his attention to chasing Kutuzov before reinforcements could arrive. Kutuzov recognizes retreat is the best option -- to thin out Napoleon's forces. Kutuzov engages the French with his rear guard, often led by Gen. Peter Bagration.   By November, Napoleon is weaker, but still threatening.  Kutuzov was waiting for Winter and for Coalition forces to be reinforced. Prof. Mikaberidze contends that if Kutuzov's advice was followed, Napoleon likely would have lost the war in the first half of 1806.We then move onto a discussion of the daily experience of officers and soldiers, based on correspondence the Professor reviewed.  From the French perspective, there is a realization Napoleon is winning through speed. The French are stressed but were moved by a sense of elation. They feel part of something monumental. Russian officers communicated a life of drudgery. Many were sick or lagging behind and walked with boots that were in tatters. There was an utter lack of food and supplies. This was a responsibility the Austrians were not living up to.   Nevertheless, there was a sense of pride and group cohesion on both sides. Overall, Kutuzov held a reputation for treating his men decently. He made a point to visit soldiers during common gatherings such as around camp fires. He asked about their experience. He would occasionally sit down with rank-and-file soldiers over a bowl of porridge. The Professor also discusses hierarchical nature of Russian society and the Table of Ranks (there were 14 total) imposed by Peter the Great. It was adopted from European systems and held up until 1917.   One would start at bottom, and ideally (though not in practice) advance through merit and perseverance.

Listen in as Alvaro Lopez from Solo Stove shares this brand's incredible entrepreneurial journey that began with two brothers with a vision and has since flourished into a significant role in the Amazon, Walmart, and e-commerce landscape. Our conversation paints a picture of how his academic pursuits in international studies set the stage for a career that expertly intersects with the Amazon-selling industry. We also unravel the story behind Solo Stove's creation by two brothers who dared to dream beyond the confines of their day jobs, skillfully navigating the supply chain from China to North America to deliver a product beloved by outdoor enthusiasts. Join us as we dissect the intricate details of brand strategy and e-commerce optimization for Amazon and Walmart. From the leap of establishing a direct-to-consumer channel to strategic maneuvers post-IPO, our discussion with a global director of marketplaces offers many insights. We dive into the crucial role of consumer obsession and mastery over logistics, and we share invaluable tactics for brand defense on platforms like Amazon. The importance of rich content and keyword optimization to cut through the noise of a saturated marketplace is laid bare, providing a roadmap for e-commerce success. Wrapping up, our chat transitions from the tantalizing secrets of Peruvian chicken to strategic e-commerce maneuvers. We highlight the essential role of high-quality ingredients and cultural heritage in culinary success before shifting to the nuances of effective copywriting and the power of tools like Helium 10's Cerebro tool. Alvaro emphasizes the significance of localization in global branding and imparts wisdom on the 'action over perfection' philosophy that has fueled the growth of many successful brands. This episode is a must-listen for anyone looking to navigate the complex yet rewarding waters of e-commerce with agility and foresight. In episode 538 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley and Franco discuss: 00:00 - Strategies for Solo Stove's E-commerce Success  07:58 - Solo Stove's Brand Defense Strategy In Amazon 09:50 - E-Commerce Brand Strategy and Optimization 12:05 - Strategies for Brand Protection 15:01 - Emotional Branding in Marketplace Selling 18:56 - Marketplace Performance Analysis and Expansion 20:21 - Expanding Sales Channels and Branding Strategies 25:57 - Peruvian Chicken's Secret & Other E-Commerce Strategies ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup  (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On YouTube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos Transcript   Bradley Sutton: You've probably heard of Solo Stove, a company that does almost half a billion dollars annually and does ads with people like Snoop Dogg and more. Now, today we're going to talk to one of the heads of their Amazon business to see what strategies that any Helium 10 user has access to that help them increase to this level. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think.   Kevin King: Hey, what's up everybody? Kevin King here. You know, one of the number one questions I get is how can you connect to me? How can I, Kevin, get some advice or speak with you or learn more from you? The best way is with Helium 10 Elite. If you go to h10.me/elite, you can get all the information and sign up for Helium 10 Elite. Every month, I lead advanced training where I do Seven Ninja Hacks. We also have live masterminds and every single week, one of those weeks I jump on for a couple hours and we talk shop, we talk business, do in-person events. Helium 10 Elite is where you want to be. It's only $99 extra on your Helium 10 membership. It's h10.me/elite. Go check it out and I hope to see you there.   Bradley Sutton: Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast by Helium 10. I'm your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show that's a completely BS free, unscripted and unrehearsed organic conversation about serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world. And again I am here on the other side of the world, here in Frankfurt, Germany, and got to link up with somebody I've known virtually for a while but now got to meet in person Alvaro: from Solo Stove. Alvaro, how's it going?   Alvaro: Good, Brad, thanks for having me. Good to be here.   Bradley Sutton: Now, your accent is not a typical Swiss accent. I know you live in Switzerland. Where, so where were you born and raised? Let's talk about you, the person first of all.   Alvaro: So I'm originally from Lima, Peru, my parents, but I grew up in Washington DC, which is why you hear the accent. So just outside of DC, you know, finished secondary school, started my undergrad in Utah and took a two-year break. During that undergrad, moved around Mexico, different parts of the states for an LDS mission at the time, and then, right after I got back and got into my undergrad, moved to Spain. That's where I met my wife, who's Swiss, German, and that's what really brought us to Southern Germany. This is why you're hearing American accent.   Bradley Sutton: There you go. So how long have you been in Europe then?    Alvaro: That was in 2014. So it's been. It's crazy to think it's been a decade. Yeah, but it's been a decade, a decade exactly this month.   Bradley Sutton: Wow, where did you go to University?   Alvaro: Utah State.   Bradley Sutton: Utah State. Yeah, aggies, oh, I got it. Oh, yes, man I always try to like test myself.   Alvaro: Right, it's like randomly in a very cold part of Utah the coldest part of Utah right on the border with Idaho but it's a pretty big undergrad campus, about 25,000 students, so don't keep me honest, but the international programs are amazing.   Bradley Sutton: What do you study when you're there?   Alvaro: I study International Studies. I'm really an honor trajectory to work for the State Department at the time, and I had already met my wife prior to finishing my undergrad, and so when I finished a foreign service exam right after my undergrad, she had got a gig in Basel. She works in the biotech pharmacy industry and Basel is mostly known for the pharma industry, and I took a job at the time in e-com through some friends in my network, and the rest is history, dude.   Bradley Sutton: Yeah, what was? So when did you get into e-com?   Alvaro: 2016.   Bradley Sutton: 2016? So what? What part of e-com was that? Was that Amazon, or was that?   Alvaro: Specifically, I was working through an agency at the time that was helping North American brands expand on Amazon generally, and I was a first European hire at the time to bring brands into Europe, and that's really we were able to successfully scale certain clients and from there moved around through other European companies, brought me into Luxembourg. I've worked back in between Germany and Switzerland for a few years and it's so now for almost four years. Great as a thing, yeah.   Bradley Sutton: Alright, so that's Alvaro's background. Let's talk about Solo stuff. A lot of this is that household name. I've had all kinds of cool companies like. I just interviewed somebody from Lego here now. We got Solo, so yeah for those who don't know about Solo. So what's the background of Solo? So the company?   Alvaro: Yeah, so you know, Solo stuff is a business. Of course we're in the consumer product goods industry but, like our whole goal as a brand and as a business is to help our customers connect with their loved ones and connect with the outdoors. So I'll kind of get back to that later if we go in detail. But the organization itself, two brothers founded the brand in 2010, as you see my t-shirt here I'm like repping well the company and really what they were looking. They were both entrepreneurs. They're both Chinese, Canadian origin, so both very familiar with the supply chain aspects in China, but, of course, going up in Canada, so many opportunities in terms of producing things in China and bringing it over with healthy profits in the Western market. So these two brothers were just looking for ways to find freedom from their day-to-day jobs. We're both were working at the time some pretty strenuous jobs. So they found a space and so I'm giving a lot of context. I think it's important to understand.   Alvaro: As they were iterating different product lines, they created this ingenious. What was this mini, now known as the light? But it was the original, just only Solo Stove and it was really a camp stove designed to be able to light a little camp stove within 90 seconds from twigs to a burning fire that you could cook with, with just the stainless steel concept, and so that same design and engineering is ultimately what ended up being optimized into grow I almost spoke German there close into bigger camp stoves from the light. And then, back in 2018, we ran a kick starter that introduced the bonfire range, and that's really what helped accelerate our growth and our momentum as a brand. But originally started from two brothers wanting to just have freedom in their lives, to create products that create good moments that leads to lasting memories. And now here we are as a publicly traded business.   Bradley Sutton: Public company having Snoop Dogg. Maybe some of you guys saw the ad campaign like I'm going smokeless.   Alvaro: You did go smokeless. Yes.   Bradley Sutton: So that's, that's pretty cool. Now, you're a publicly traded company. I know like I think you guys had published like in 2022. You've done over like 400 million across all platforms. Were you up last year, down last year, 2023?   Alvaro: Yeah, so from a marketplace perspective, we were up, which you felt really grateful. Obviously, last year, 2023 was really interesting year. We're kind of pretty much all brands in our sector are reconciling like post pandemic trends. So as a business, overall we were pretty flat, healthy, cash wise and profit wise, very strong marketplace and international saw tremendous growth, which we can talk about this in detail. But I view our partnership with Helium 10 as a core variable to that consistent performance. I'm really helping us understand where the market at scale really is and how we can continue to take part of that market share that we have and grow it. So, from a marketplace perspective, amazon specifically USA was up in Amazon global was up significantly year-over-year.   Bradley Sutton: What percentage? You know what once you get to a certain level. This is similar to what I talked about, Silas, who formerly from Lego is, is like what percentage is from brand search? And then what percentage would you say is just coming from people typing in you know, smokeless Barbecue pit or something? Random keywords.   Alvaro: It's a great question and actually you know it ties directly into what we can do within Helium 10 and tech stack. You guys simplify, but from what we've seen, both within the search query performance on brand analytics and seller central, and from the believe it's Frank and center said, able to remind me where we can find a search volume that I don't yep, yep, we see that the Solo Stove branded searches is almost three times bigger than smokeless fire pit. Wow, which is wow, which is unique, because there's not a lot of brands that can pretty much be synonymous to an entire market. I mean, yeah, of course. Yeah, Lego is.   Bradley Sutton: One of the only examples where it's like I don't know what you would skate toy bricks right.   Alvaro: Kleenex, I guess. So we've been really grateful that we can drive that. Obviously, in the US, Germany, Canada, UK, Amazon is definitely if not the biggest, one of the biggest search engine platforms for consumers looking for a product or looking into a product. So, naturally, the way we have our omni channel sales channels, I should say set up, we leverage Amazon as both, of course, a place where we can drive tremendous growth and profit, but also a place where we need to defend the brand. So I think from a percentage perspective, all over half of our sales come from branded search, which is really a strong attribution to our entire brand and marketing team and, of course, product development team. We can go into detail in this podcast, however you wish, but for us, a marketplace that's really critical is how are we defending the brand, how are we displaying the brand, how's our content, what's that consumer experience like and how are we defending the traffic that's looking for us so we're not losing them in the funnel? It's a critical component of our strategy.   Bradley Sutton: Interesting. I definitely want to get into some specific strategies, but one just general question I'm curious about is from what I understand, Solo Stove in the States has been kind of like a household name for a while. You're a little bit newer here in Europe. What was your expansion strategy? Like, did Amazon play a big role in trying to get your brand out here, or was it a lot of just traditional marketing?   Alvaro: Yes, so we officially. So. I was actually the first European hire fun fact for Solo Stove back in very end of 2020, going into 2021. Originally brought on as a director of marketplaces globally. First for Solo, this was pre acquisition of other brands, pre IPO, so then took that role as we acquire new brands right shout out to Oro, Kayak, Iel, Chubby Shorts. So it was really really interesting experience. And then that fall 2021 is when we launched direct to consumer.   Alvaro: Now, we had a little bit of a head start. We had some great distribution partners, some that we still work with very closely with today, that we had some organic search and so really, from the circumstance in the car that we were playing, that really helped us define, specifically in Europe, the way we're going to market is like where to put our focus in terms of marketing spend and our focus in terms of channels, like where we're actually going to sell. So we immediately noticed that in Europe specifically Northern Europe to be most specific, right between the UK, Nordics, Benelux, the Dach region, right Germany, Austria, Switzerland we knew that would be our focus. So that definitely helped us define where our headquarter would be, which is today in Rotterdam. That was extremely critical. Make sure we staff that effectively.   Alvaro: For us, consumer obsession is our fundamental. We want to make sure customers have a great experience and that logistically which we own our distribution out of Rotterdam we own all of our logistics. That's an extremely critical component. So, in terms of, like, the actual launch right, the setup is critical. Understanding which market we're going to play in.   Alvaro: I mean, these were things that were important to set up, but once actually going live to market, we're a digitally native brand. So when we went live to market, it was an omnichannel mix digitally, meaning that we focused, hyper focused on our website and across Amazon Pan Europe, and we did more our first full year being live direct to consumer than it took solo, so 10 years to do it domestically. So it was, I would say, obviously and this is with the same profit constraints that we have in the US obviously, as public and traded business, we have a responsibility to shareholders, not only to drive top line but also to drive bottom line. So we're really, really proud of that story and we've just seen year over year growth, sustaining those same top and bottom line figures that I'm alluding to.   Bradley Sutton: Awesome, awesome. All right, let's get back into some specific strategies. You alluded to like kind of like brand defense and putting a moat around your brand. And yes, of course, when you're that size of a company, like you guys are, it's important. But even smaller sellers, once they're building up their brand, there's going to be brand search and it might not be at the scale of a Solo Stove or Lego, but they would have to follow the same principles as kind of like you have. So what has been your strategy? I know, like Helium 10, maybe Adtomic and some others tools talk about that a little bit, but what's your strategy at protecting your brand?   Alvaro: One of the most profound conversations I remember the last three years working with Solo Stove and solo brands is a conversation I had with our Chief Digital Officer at the time, who's also one of the founders of Chubbies, Tom Montgomery, who, like what an incredible experience working under his wing for over a year. We were talking one day about like specific tactics for operating on Amazon, and one of those things actually was brand registry, and I was going into detail and he, for lack of better terms or articulating this, he just kind of stopped me and said hey, Alvaro, this is a fundamental, we don't need to go into detail here. So, when it comes to like your defense on Amazon, like make sure that the resources Amazon provides you to defend your brand, be it like the most fundamental basics being like hey, get brand registered. Make sure it's basically like an Amazon trademark right. Or maybe it's a transparency program right If you're dealing with counterfeits or unauthorized resellers.   Alvaro: Maybe it's project zero, which is a more robust element of transparency I'd say, make those fundamentals in your business. I would say that's an extremely critical component. Like, make the resources that Amazon has to give to you now, what Walmart's providing right through their seller platform, make those brand resources to defend your brand of fundamental and exhaust them right. If you're a bigger business and you need to make that cross I'd say cross department focus initiative, like with your legal team or your finance team or your CTO, do so, but just make it a fundamental like don't postpone any resource you have through brand registry. Okay, hope that kind of answers your question.   Bradley Sutton: Yeah, absolutely, so definitely important. And again, you don't need to be a humongous seller. I would say brand new seller. Why not start with brand registry? You know, if you're just an arbitrage seller or something, of course, yeah, you don't even have to worry about that, but everybody should be protecting their brand. What about on the kind of like listing optimization, keyword strategy, advertising strategy? As far as protecting your brand in that sense, though.   Alvaro: Yeah, I mean indexing is critical. You know, as I alluded to earlier, we have a lot more search for Solo Stove than someone who's probably looking for a product that we sell right, similar to our core product, I'd say. But as far as like what we do to defend a brand through the listing, going again back to the principle, fundamentals, we have hundreds and thousands of assets. So this to any brand that's serious about selling on marketplace, where I mean, look, cost of acquisition is more expensive, there's more sellers, there's more listings, you need to make sure that your content is rich, right? So for us, where you know anyone can buy like a random fire pit from Walmart or from Target for 50 bucks, 100 bucks, you know why are you gonna spend three, four, five times more on a solo, so fire pit? And it's because we want to evoke that emotion of creating good moments. And so, for us, part of the defense strategy is hey, is the content, the copy, your A plus for Amazon specifically, is it evoking that emotion that you want to be associated to your brand? Right for us, it's, of course we're selling fire pits, but the end to all these means is can we evoke the emotion on that session that a customer or potential customers having with our Brand, showing that they can create good moments with the brand. I think it's a really critical component of our brand and that defense strategy from a listing perspective.   Bradley Sutton: Excellent. Yeah, I think that is something that smaller sellers sometimes think they don't have to worry about. But you know, people look at that stuff, you know, and in a cookie cutter world where maybe there's 15 people doing the same thing, similar prices, that's the kind of stuff that sets you apart and makes you memorable. What kind of advertising do you guys, you know, focus on? Do you just do pretty much everything that Amazon provides, whether it's sponsored, band, display, DSP, etc?   Alvaro: It's a great question. You know, we actually just had some pretty high-level folks at Amazon in our offices last week in Great Vine. It's really grateful for that experience because we actually had some key members from the Amazon ads team coming to the office and really give us insights into some of the new products that Amazon ads is developing. And so for us, definitely it's part of a strategy broadly is to maximize the way we utilize resources that Amazon has to offer. But as far as like the going back to like the ad console and what we're executing highly and yeah, it's across the board right we obviously see best efficiency across sponsored product, right. And then the way we define that strategy top to bottom, the funnel is critical right, defensive to offensive, and we carry similar strategies across sponsored brand, sponsored display.   Alvaro: And now we're getting to a point as a business where I mean you'll hear high-level team members from Solo, so speak about this over this coming year. But we're really trying to blur our performance digitally, right. Amazon is developing some products that is going to affect more positively performance outside of Amazon and we want to take part of that right through AMC or DSP. So that's gonna be a really critical component is leveraging the experience we have from the ad console right through the three core campaign types that we could have run into new products that they're developing and really blur both performance and our operations behind it with Amazing talent that we have in-house that historically been focused on, like paid social and Google, and trying to blur that operation, if that kind of makes sense.   Bradley Sutton: On Amazon Advertising, how does your team leverage a Helium 10 Adtomic?   Alvaro: You know the biggest, biggest benefit that we've seen with that Adtomic specifically is helping streamline extremely time-consuming things. I mean we're highly tactical, highly experienced and very, very detailed in terms of the, the campaigns and the way we're optimizing. I mean, you're probably looking at our account we have thousands of campaigns just in the US alone and then you can do the multiples of that because we put similar efforts across all of our channels on Amazon and we're in 15 Amazon stores a little bit under once you start to consider international. So what Adtomic has done really I can speak transparently with you here in person is helping a streamline, extremely time-consuming task like bulk changes, bulk edits, in a way that's not just to get it done to save time, but in a way that's it's insightful and data-driven. Yeah, to keep it simple.   Bradley Sutton: Taking a step back, you just mentioned all the different marketplaces you sell in. If you were to say, you know, just gross revenue, top five, you know, I'm safe to say US number one, what would be? Germany, number two, UK.   Alvaro: It's really interesting on Amazon. It's similar performance that we see between UK and Germany. It's funny because off Amazon our British business is more material. So it speaks a little bit to the power of, I think, of Amazon Germany, or maybe even the preference of consumer behavior. Maybe German is just again, we need to take a deeper dive in this but maybe our German customers just prefer to shop on Amazon Germany, for whatever their reason is I'll come back to your answer but an important fundamental as a brand is we want to meet our customer where they want to be met.   Alvaro: That's why omnichannel is so critical. But as far as Amazon, definitely the top four is Germany, UK after the US. Canada is up there and then in the rest of Europe between France, Italy, Spain and Holland. I think you have a pretty much flat performance competing for that fifth spot. We most definitely can scale our performance in Japan and Australia just from the data we can see in terms of search volume for our brand. But obviously Japan and Australia aren't necessarily right next to Europe, so it requires a bit more effort logistically. Yeah, that runs up the top five. I hope that helps.   Bradley Sutton: Yeah, what about any non-Amazon marketplaces that you guys are doing well in, like you know, be it Walmart or TikTok shop?   Alvaro: It's a great question. You know, domestically, 100%, Walmart's been a really great partner of ours. Obviously, they as a business have been hyper focused on developing this marketplace that can, over time, become a pure competitor to Amazon. At the moment, from my understanding, at a macro level, it's still, you know, years away from really competing with Amazon, but they've been great partners in terms of giving us the human element and time and attention and placements that I think a brand like ours deserves, considering how much branded search goes into their marketplace. So that partnership with Walmart has been really important for us. Again, going back to the notion of meeting customers where they want to be met, we've found that there's a lot of customers that want to be met there, and so we're excited and eager to double down on the performance on Walmart marketplace.   Alvaro: And yeah, man, look, I'm based in Basel, one of my favorite things about living in Basel is it's on the border with Germany, France and Switzerland, and so I have firsthand, daily I can see how fragmented consumer behavior is across those three countries and so in Europe, way more nuanced in terms of our marketplace approach. It's obviously Amazon Paniu is critical, but I mean we've got other really important sales channels to us, such as Bowl, right out of Netherlands and Belgium, Allegro, which we've heard a little bit about today in Poland, Manor in Switzerland, Galaxies something in our radar, so a few other marketplaces just because it's so much, so much more fragmented that are critical for us.   Bradley Sutton: Do anything in Korea?   Alvaro: At the moment? No, but we do have a great partner in Korea and we do have some pretty strong performance, not necessarily through marketplace.   Bradley Sutton: It's got to be some Korean barbecue, a product you have. I mean, Korean barbecue is so popular worldwide. Yeah, you know, there's got to be something you can do there.   Alvaro: Yeah, I know that for sure there. I mean, if you guys ever want to see like amazing engineering around a Solo, so I mean I hope I don't know of some of your audience if they're looking at Solo stuff. The aesthetics of the product is so simple. It's a beautiful product, but some of the things we see engineered around the Solo sale out of Japan and Korea and China not by our team is incredible. So owe them a lot of props in terms of like giving us definitely some inspiration.   Bradley Sutton: If you make an in-house Korean barbecue table or device, I would be your first customer. You know, because, like you know, like what I do in my house, you know, none of us are Korean but like I've been eating Korean food my whole life and I just only watch Korean TV and everything. But you know, I just got like this burner with a little tank of whatever it is and it's not efficient. Smoke, like you know, everywhere. I got to open up all the windows and I got to, you know, replay. It's like there's got to be a better way and I think you guys would be the ones to do it. So let me, let me beta test.   Alvaro: Don't challenge us. We're one of the key polar of ours is getting indoors, you know, with some of our core lines.   Bradley Sutton: We mentioned earlier how you, you know, did something with Snoop Dogg. You know that now that's something that, no, not you know brand new sellers or even million dollar sellers, you know should be considering somebody of that stature. But at what point should an Amazon seller start reaching out to maybe micro influencers or just you know people, people to promote their product?   Alvaro: Yeah, look, it's a much different answer today than it was even two years ago. Like, if you're coming on Amazon or you're like a newer brand on Amazon and you don't have a strategy to develop your brand off Amazon, you're going to lose. You're going to lose and it's going to make me. Maybe right now you're on a wave and trying to feel as good, but I promise you, the more you can flatten your reach as a brand holistically, the better you're going to be. In this case, like, the best example is we've been able to grow successfully on Amazon with further investments off Amazon by driving more organic search, because Amazon is a beast right, it's a massive search platform. So the more you can drive awareness off Amazon, you're still going to be technically driving awareness into Amazon. So I would say today, when you consider the basics of you, know, increased competition, increased cost, you know.   Alvaro: Then you have some macroeconomic factors to implement in terms of how consumers feel about spending, you know, their own hard earned funds into brands that maybe they've never heard of. It's a lot more nuanced today and a lot more difficult, so you want to make sure you're definitely focused on developing a brand where consumers can not only connect but have awareness about what your brand is, so they can make a more. You know, feed the funnel earlier and get to that bottom much earlier than anticipated, because Amazon, of course, is the bottom of the funnel when it comes to sales channel. Like, people are ready to shop if they're on Amazon. So, yeah, I would just strongly recommend, like, make sure you invest as much time when it comes to branding off Amazon as you do on Amazon.   Bradley Sutton: Alright, before we get into your final strategy of the day, just a couple somewhat off related topics. But first of all, if you guys want to find out more or find you know about their products, you know, just type in Solo Stove literally to any search engine or on Amazon or Walmart or anywhere. If people just want to find you on the interwebs out there is LinkedIn a good place to follow what you do.   Alvaro: Yeah, LinkedIn is great. I'm pretty private on social media unless your part of our online community. My German wife has taught me well in terms of privacy, but LinkedIn is a great platform. If you just look up, there's only one Alvaro. Alvaro, it's a very Spanish name, very difficult to Germanize or Anglicize. So if you just look up, Alvaro Lopez. All opus, you'll find me for Solo stuff. I think it's the best way.   Bradley Sutton: Okay cool. Random question why in Peruvian restaurants is the chicken so good?   Alvaro: Man, it's a great question. It's definitely a combination of the..   Bradley Sutton: You got some secret spice that you all are using or what's going on?   Alvaro: Well, actually it's funny because I was like in Utah recently and I know the owner of one of the biggest Peruvian chicken chain in Utah called a Red Fuego. If anyone's ever in Salt Lake City, I've got a couple of chains around Provo, Salt Lake City and he invested like his core investment was the kitchen and he imported it from Lima. So I think that's a core component. And then, of course, you get into the quality of the chicken.   Alvaro: I'm pretty pro animal rights here, so make sure that chicken's well taken care of. It's gotta be a healthy chicken that you're going to be putting into your diet. And then just the seasoning. I mean Peru is like I'm very biased here, but it's definitely top five culinary countries, I think, in the planet because of our mix man. It's a great balance between the indigenous ingredients and culture from the yin and beyond that the Spanish, Italian immigrants, Japanese, Chinese immigrants that came through the 19th century and just made a perfect blend of spices and herbs and that's what goes into the marinade of the chicken man. So those three things man.   Bradley Sutton: It's such good stuff, man. When I was living in LA I would always go. I forgot it was something, Inka was the name of the restaurant. Oh my goodness, so good. Yeah, um, favorite Helium 10 tool?   Alvaro: That's very difficult. Yeah, I mean to be transparent, it's a very difficult answer. I want to say the one I'm just going to complete a correlate a tool to success, and I think the way we write our copy has been critical, right cause we do index very specific things that we know have high search volume on Amazon that don't necessarily appear on our website. I say Frankenstein has been very critical in terms of, not only providing a good copy for a customer, but also getting keywords that have attacked. You know, I've added new, uh, new customers that would have never found us anyway.   Bradley Sutton: Awesome. And then if you were to have a wish list, like maybe something that Helium 10 doesn't do, or a feature or a filter or anything, what would you tell me? Because that's my goal this year is trying to get all the features we don't have yet.   Alvaro: Yeah, that's a great question. I knew you were talking earlier. You're going to spend more time in Europe, I think I think for serious brands that have I mean, you've seen now like the proliferation of great brands that are focused on Amazon. Well, a lot of these brands are going to have global reach. So I think the more resources you can offer to better localize and translate within Helium 10, I think, there's a massive market for that the more you can automate maybe it's something with ChatGPT, but something to translate and effectively localized would be critical.   Bradley Sutton: Got it, got it. All right. Something I asked the guest is like give a 30 or 60 second tip, strategy could be about anything in e-commerce or non e-commerce. Could be about anything.   Alvaro: Go ahead, yeah, I mean let me put my consulting hat on, which have been a brand operator for the last few years. So just focus on action and I think one of the most again going back to lessons I've had from the executive leads at, one of the most important things I took away from, our former CEO, John Maris. He said he'd rather have me focus on doing twice the amount of things half as good than half the amount of things really good and that, really, to be transparent, that philosophy of just iterating different initiatives, obviously targeted initiatives that can drive business, drive top and bottom line, has been really critical. In terms of finding out what sticks, doubling down on those and then the ones that don't work, quickly offloading them, have been really good. So I think just purposefully actioning items that's going to grow your business is extremely critical. You need to be. If you're not waking up every Monday, if your business is good and you're not waking up the beginning of the week, if you're not obsessed about how to double down on that growth, you're on a track to lose. And if you're losing and you're not obsessed about how to offset those losses, then you're going to lose even more.   Bradley Sutton: All right, well, Alvaro, thank you so much for coming on here. It's been great to meet you in person and thank you for taking the time out and wish you and the solo so best of success. Maybe we'll have you back on the show next year and see what you guys are doing.   Alvaro: Yeah. Thanks Brad!

On the version of Hot off the Wire posted Feb. 19 at 7:15 a.m. CT: INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A shooting at a Waffle House restaurant in Indianapolis has killed a woman and wounded five other victims. the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department says officers responded to a report of a shooting at the restaurant on Lynhurst Drive around 12:30 a.m. Monday. Police found five victims with gunshot wounds who were transported to a hospital, including a woman who was in critical condition and died at the hospital. The wounded victims included a woman and three men, who all were listed in stable condition. Police say a sixth man traveled separately to a hospital with a gunshot wound from the shooting and was listed in critical condition. Investigators believe an altercation between two groups of people at the restaurant escalated to gunfire. There were no immediate arrests. BURNSVILLE, Minn. (AP) — A suburban Minneapolis community was in mourning after authorities said two police officers and a firefighter were killed by a heavily armed man who shot at them from inside a home that was filled with children. Officials say the suspect in the shooting also died. The shooting in Burnsville also wounded a third officer. Seven children were inside the home, but officials say the family was able to leave the home safely. Hundreds of people gathered in front of Burnsville City Hall on Sunday night for a candlelit vigil to remember the victims. BERLIN (AP) — An American man is on trial Kempten, Southern Germany for murder and other offenses after he allegedly pushed two women from the U.S. into a ravine near Neuschwanstein castle in June last year, fatally injuring one of them. The German news agency dpa reported Monday that the 31-year-old defendant admitted to the charges against him. Defendants in the German legal system do not formally enter pleas to charges. Prosecutors said the defendant raped one of the women and pushed her down the ravine, killing her. He also pushed the other woman down the ravine but she survived. Murder charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison in Germany. DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A missile attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels damaged a Belize-flagged ship traveling through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait that connects the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, forcing the crew to abandon the ship. The ship targeted in the Houthi attack on Sunday reported sustaining damage after “an explosion in close proximity to the vessel." That's according to the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center, which said its crew had survived unscathed in the attack. Houthi Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree issued a statement claiming the attack, saying the vessel was “now at risk of potentially sinking.” RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Gaza’s Health Ministry says more than 29,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. The ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said on Monday that 107 bodies were brought to hospitals in the last 24 hours. That brings the total number of fatalities to 29,092 since the start of the war. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its records, but says most of those killed were women and children. The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostage. SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The latest in a series of wet winter storms is gaining strength in California. Forecasters warned Monday of possible flooding, hail, strong winds and even brief tornadoes as the system moves south over the next few days. The National Weather Service says the central coast is at risk of “significant flooding.” Up to 5 inches of rain is predicted for many areas. Isolated rain totals of 10 inches are possible in the Santa Lucia and Santa Ynez mountain ranges. Flood watches and warnings have been issued in coastal and mountain areas up and down the state. MENTON, France (AP) — As most of Europe moves into the solemn weeks before Easter, the party is just getting started on the French Rivera. The Mediterranean town of Menton showcased its lush citrus and celebrated the upcoming Olympics in Paris during its Carnival parade on Sunday. Sculptures of athletes assembled from lemons and oranges decorated the streets and rode on giant floats. Nice, the Rivera’s capital, kicked off its annual Carnival season on Saturday night with a pop culture-themed parade that featured “Star Wars” character Luke Skywalker as king and Marilyn Monroe, clad in a Superwoman costume, as his queen. Modern versions of Carnival over the past century mocked politicians and ridiculed public figures. ATLANTA (AP) — Since Jimmy Carter entered hospice care at his home in south Georgia one year ago, the former U.S. president has celebrated his 99th birthday, enjoyed tributes to his legacy and lost his wife of 77 years. Rosalynn Carter died in November, about six months after the Carter family disclosed her dementia diagnosis. She lived only a few days under hospice supervision, with her frail husband at her bedside. Experts on end-of-life care say the Carters’ different paths show the range of an oft-misunderstood service. Those advocates commend the Carter family for demonstrating the realities of aging, dementia and death. PHILADELPHIA (AP) — As he closes in on the Republican presidential nomination, former President Donald Trump made a highly unusual stop. On Saturday he hawked new Trump-branded sneakers at “Sneaker Con,” a gathering that bills itself as the “The Greatest Sneaker Show On Earth.” Trump was met with loud boos as well as cheers at the Philadelphia Convention Center as he introduced what he called the first official Trump footwear. The shoes are shiny gold high tops with an American flag detail on the back. They are being sold as “Never Surrender High-Tops” for $399 on a new website that also sells Trump-branded “Victory47” cologne and perfume for $99 a bottle. In sports, the NBA stars put on a show, a pair of men's basketball top 25 teams lose, the top ranked team in women's college basketball records a record setting victory, it was a light schedule in the NHL, the PGA Tour sees a come from behind winner, and the Daytona 500 is pushed by a day due to weather. In entertainment, Paramount Pictures’ Bob Marley biopic “Bob Marley: One Love” outperformed expectations to debut at No. 1 at the box office with a $27.7 million opening weekend. But Sony’s “Madame Web” flopped with one of the lowest debuts for a movie centered on a Marvel character. Former Rep. George Santos is suiing Jimmy Kimmel, concerns over Brian Wilson and Paul McCartney's famous bass has been returned. In this week's small business monitor, a look at positive job growth. In this week's religion roundup, there are many unanswered questions after a shooting at Joel Osteen's Houston megachurch. —The Associated Press About this program Host Terry Lipshetz is managing editor of the national newsroom for Lee Enterprises. Besides producing the daily Hot off the Wire news podcast, Terry conducts periodic interviews for this Behind the Headlines program, co-hosts the Streamed & Screened movies and television program and is the former producer of Across the Sky, a podcast dedicated to weather and climate. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. Learn more here.

Guest: Professor Volker Leppin, Horace Tracy Pitkin Professor of Historical Theology at Yale Divinity School. He is a native of Germany, and a Reformation scholar Show Notes In the interview, Volker suggests people read Martin Luther's Treatise on Christian Liberty also called the Freedom of a Christian. You can find many translations. Here is one for free online, though I prefer the version in Timothy Lull's Martin Luther's Writing collection. My regular Newsletter with an Essay on Mysticism and Psychology https://jameshazelwood.substack.com/ Volker Leppin Bio Educated at the University of Marburg Heidelberg University, and the Theological Academic Year in Jerusalem program, Volker Leppin received a chair in Church History at the University of Jena (Thuringia, Germany) in 2000. Ten years later, he moved to the University of Tübingen in Southern Germany, where he held the chair in Church History and directed the Institute for Late Middle Ages and Reformation from 2010 to 2021. He is a member of the Academies of Sciences at Heidelberg, the Saxonian Academy of Sciences, and as well the European Academy of Arts and Sciences, Salzburg, Austria, three distinguished scholarly societies in Europe. Professor Leppin is the author of 20 monographs, most of them in German. His biography of Martin Luther, Martin Luther. A Late Medieval Life, (Baker Academic,  2017) is also available in English. He has provided several critical text editions, e.g. William of Ockham, Dialogus. Part 2. Part 3, Tract 1, ed. with John Kilcullen, John Scott and Jan Ballweg (Oxford, 2011). In addition, he is the editor or co-editor of 53 books, and the author of more than 300 scholarly articles and chapters, altogether covering a broad range of interests from antiquity to the modern area. Professor Leppin's scholarship is particularly interested in medieval and Reformation studies. He argues that the Reformation should be understood as a transformation of the medieval world rather than a stark rupture. His work also focuses on the history of spirituality, mainly in mysticism. Accordingly, his most recent book is a history of Christian mysticism from the Bible to the 20th century: Ruhen in Gott (Rest in God). https://divinity.yale.edu/faculty-and-research/yds-faculty/volker-leppin Host: James Hazelwood James Hazelwood, author, bishop, and spiritual companion, is the author of Weird Wisdom for the Second Half of Life and Everyday Spirituality: Discover a Life of Hope, Peace, and Meaning. His website is www.jameshazelwood.net  

Born in the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar, composer, pianist and arranger Shuteen Erdenebaatar (*1998) brings a unique sound to the audience with her yearning melodies enriched with profound and expressive harmonies and rhythms. The daughter of Erdenebaatar Gombo, who recently earned the title “The Emeritus of Art” for his 40 years as director of the National Mongolian Opera, and Batkhuyag Ochirbat, a television director and journalist, Shuteen was brought up surrounded by arts and culture - particularly classical music. Accordingly, she studied classical piano and classical composition at the State Conservatory of Ulaanbaatar before coming into contact with jazz through a program at the Goethe Institute. "It was then that a whole new world opened up to me," she says. "Suddenly I had the freedom to play what I heard in my heart, not just what was written in the notes. With her bachelor's degree in classical music in hand at age 20, she yearned to explore the world of jazz and eventually came to study at the Conservatory in Munich. A key moment. She earned two master's degrees both in Jazz Performance and in Jazz Composition, and most importantly was able to find and cultivate her own jazz voice.  Shuteen Erdenebaatar is a laureate of the prestigious BMW Young Artist Jazz Award 2022, the 1st Prize and the audience award for the legendary Young Munich Jazz Award, the Music Scholarship of the City of Munich 2022, the Composition Prize at the Biberach Prize 2022 and the 1st Prize at the Kurt Maas Jazz Prize 2021, among others. Her compositions have been played in the Munich Philharmonic Hall or in Studio 2 of the Bavarian National Radio. Furthermore, she has also been commissioned by Mongolia's most significant orchestras, such as the Bayan Mongol Big Band, the Mongolian State Philharmonic Orchestra or the Mongolian State Opera Symphony Orchestra.  Currently she is working as a composer and pianist on her own projects such as the Shuteen Erdenebaatar Quartet, the Lightville Duo, and as a conductor for her newly formed 20-piece, cross-genre Chamber Jazz Orchestra in Munich. In 2023, she signed a three-album agreement with the multi-Grammy award-winning New York label Motema Music, which includes all three of her current projects. The first album Rising Sun with her quartet was released on September 15, 2023.  About Rising Sun:  Erdenebaatar's classical foundation is unmistakable throughout, displayed by her technical brilliance, stylistic finesse, and the thematic structure of her compositions. Enriched by expressive harmonies and rhythm variability, Erdenebaatar's memorable melodies serve as a framework for her formidable band to stretch out. The quartet consists of a German cadre of fellow players from her university cohort, all now award-winning rising stars and bandleaders in their own right. Bassist Nils Kugelmann, whom Southern Germany's leading daily paper The Süddeutsche Zeitung named “one of the best in his field”, is a rhythmically and melodically outstanding all-rounder. Drummer Valentin Renner is one of Germany's busiest jazz drummers, currently the backbone of several notable jazz ensembles in the country. Finally, the creative and highly virtuosic  Anton Mangold rounds out the ensemble on saxophones and flutes. The quartet's charismatic interplay is a highlight of the album. "It helped me a lot to know everyone well. I already had in mind who was playing each part when I was composing,” Erdenebaatar shares.  If you enjoyed this episode please make sure to subscribe, follow, rate, and/or review this podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, ect. Connect with us on all social media platforms and at www.improvexchange.com

A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts. www.catholicnewsagency.com - Pope Francis condemned euthanasia and abortion as actions that “play with life” and said there is such a thing as “bad compassion” during a press conference aboard the papal plane from Marseille to Rome on Saturday. Aboard the plane, Pope Francis was asked by a French journalist whether he had spoken about euthanasia in his private conversation with France's President Emmanuel Macron earlier in the day. Francis said he did not address the topic of euthanasia with Macron on Saturday but that he had expressed himself “clearly” on the issue when the French president visited him at the Vatican last year. “Whether it is the law not to let the child grow in the mother's womb or the law of euthanasia in disease and old age,” he said, “I am not saying it is a faith thing, but it is a human thing: There is bad compassion.” https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255459/you-don-t-play-with-life-pope-francis-condemns-euthanasia-abortion-on-papal-plane In Marseille on Friday, before a memorial to people lost at sea, Pope Francis said humanity is at a crossroads between fraternity and indifference regarding the migrant crisis. “We can no longer watch the drama of shipwrecks, caused by the cruel trafficking and the fanaticism of indifference,” he said September 22. “People who are at risk of drowning when abandoned on the waves must be rescued. It is a duty of humanity; it is a duty of civilization.” “On the one hand, there is fraternity, which makes the human community flourish with goodness; on the other, indifference, which bloodies the Mediterranean. We find ourselves at a crossroads of civilization.” The pope spoke during a meeting with local religious leaders at a memorial dedicated to sailors and migrants lost at sea on the first of a two-day visit to Marseille. The day after the pope's visit — and the concluding day of the encounter, Sunday, September 24 — is the World Day of Migrants and Refugees. The first quarter of 2023 was the deadliest since 2017 in the Central Mediterranean, with at least 441 people dying, though that's considered an undercount. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255451/pope-francis-in-marseille-it-s-a-duty-of-humanity-to-save-migrants-abandoned-at-sea Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, the woman twice arrested for silent prayer outside UK abortion clinics, has received a police apology and confirmation that she will not face charges for violating a local “buffer zone” protection order. Vaughan-Spruce is the director of March for Life UK and helps support women in crisis pregnancies. She has regularly prayed near abortion clinics for 20 years. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255453/woman-arrested-for-silent-prayer-at-uk-abortion-clinics-gets-police-apology Today, the Church celebrates Saint Hermann Contractus. He was born crippled and unable to move without assistance. It was an immense difficulty for him to learn to read and write, however he persisted and his iron will and remarkable intelligence were soon manifested. Upon discovering the brilliance of his son's mind, his father, Count Wolverad II, sent him at the age of seven to live with the Benedictine monks on the island of Reichenau in Southern Germany. He lived his entire life on the island, taking his monastic vows in 1043. Students from all over Europe flocked to the monastery on the island to learn from him, yet he was equally as famous for his monastic virtues and sanctity. Hermann chronicled the first thousand years of Christianity, was a mathematician, an astronomer, and a poet and was also the composer of the Salve Regina and Alma Redemptoris Mater – both hymns to the Virgin Mary. He died on the island on September 21, 1054. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-hermann-contractus-372

Get ready to experience an electrifying episode of Real Deal Talk that takes you on a journey from adversity to triumph!!

Join us on a heartfelt and insightful journey as we dive into the delicate yet significant task of preaching at funerals and consoling grieving families. Mike speaks with veteran pastor Paul Beasley-Murray, who offers practical advice to help Christian leaders craft meaningful, biblically driven sermons and preach with confidence and compassion at funeral services. With empathy and wisdom, he shares invaluable advice and guidance for pastors facing the challenging moments of loss. in our conversation, Reverend Paul Beasley Murray sheds light on the vital role pastors play in providing comfort and solace during times of grief. He emphasizes the importance of being present with the grieving family members on the day of the death, offering genuine support and a compassionate shoulder to lean on. Furthermore, the discussion delves into the delicate topic of addressing funerals for individuals who died by suicide. Dr Beasley-Murray provides compassionate insight on how pastors can approach such services, offering guidance on crafting a message that acknowledges the pain and complexity of the situation while providing hope and healing to the mourning congregation.Additionally, the podcast explores the challenging task of preaching a funeral when the eternal destiny of the deceased is uncertain. Paul shares practical advice and compassionate approaches to navigate these sensitive moments, offering comfort to grieving families and providing a message of God's mercy and grace.In the latter part of our conversation, we delve into the strengths of both the Baptist and Anglican traditions when it comes to funeral services. We discuss the unique liturgical elements and rich traditions within each tradition, highlighting how they can be harnessed to create meaningful and impactful funeral services that honour the deceased and provide comfort to those left behind.If you are a pastor seeking guidance in navigating the complexities of preaching at funerals and consoling grieving families, this episode is an invaluable resource. Reverend Paul Beasley-Murray's compassionate wisdom and deep understanding will equip you with the tools needed to minister effectively during times of loss, offering solace and hope to those who are hurting.Resources Mentioned: There is Hope Preaching at Funerals By Paul Beasley-Murray : https://ivpbooks.com/there-is-hopeBryan Croft on preaching the Gospel at Funerals: https://www.9marks.org/article/preaching-the-gospel-at-funerals/ Preachers Talk Podcast on preaching funerals: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1IDYkfjCE7XWyvAaRvEU9m?si=Z3Ag5WUtS8OsGtSYC5MAHg Recommended Episodes: Nick Cady and Mike Neglia on Preaching Funerals: https://www.expositorscollective.com/podcast/2020/4/7/episode-100-preaching-funeralsBryan Chapell on Pastoral Care : https://www.expositorscollective.com/podcast/2022/9/13/pulpit-flourish-vs-pastoral-care-with-bryan-chappell Phil Newton on Pastoral Preaching : https://www.expositorscollective.com/podcast/2021/7/1/pastoral-preaching-dr-phil-newton mil·li·nery ˈmi-lə-ˌner-ē : women's apparel for the head. : the business or work of a milliner.About Paul Beasley-MurrayMinistry ConsultantOrdained in 1970, Paul is an experienced minister who has a real ‘heart' for ministry. He enjoys reflecting on the practice of ministry – as also serving as a ministry consultant. Over the years Paul has written widely on ministry matters and has taught all over the world on a wide range of topics related to Christian ministryPaul remains an accredited Baptist Minister of the Baptist Union of Great Britain, but is now part of the Chelmsford Cathedral community. He regularly speaks at the Cathedral's Sunday morning seminar-style ‘Breakfast with the Bible', and also leads a ‘fellowship group'. Paul continues to preach in churches of various denominations, although he is happy just to be part of the Sunday 9.30 Parish Eucharist at the Cathedral.Paul co-founded a bi-monthly lunchtime for retired Baptist ministers in Mid- and South Essex, and takes the lead in presenting topics for discussion.Since 2005 Paul has been a member of the Rotary Club of Chelmsford Rivermead, and was the 2016-2017 club president. In June 2018 he was named a Paul Harris Fellow by the Rotary Foundation of Rotary International. With its aim of ‘service above self', Paul sees his Rotary involvement as an expression of Christian ministry.Ministry ExperienceAs Senior Minister of Central Baptist Church, Chelmsford (1993-2014) he transformed a traditional declining city-centre church into a strong vibrant, growing fellowship; at the time he left there were 399 committed members, together with a much larger church community.As Principal of Spurgeon's College, London (1986-1993) he doubled the student enrolment, increased the faculty by one-third, and developed new patterns of ministerial trainingAs Pastor of Altrincham Baptist Church, Cheshire (1973-1986) he enabled a small declining church to develop into a strong virile church, quadrupled in size (from 83 to 300+ members).As a BMS Missionary in Congo/Zaire (1990-1992) he taught Greek and New Testament in the Protestant Theological Faculty of the National University.Prior to going up to Cambridge Paul served as a ‘Time for God' worker with the German Baptists (1962-63), helping with Baptist youth work in Southern Germany.Interests Beyond MinistryIn Who's Who? Paul lists as his interests cooking, travel and parties! His grandchildren are also another major interest!He is married to Caroline, a past President of the Coroners Society of England and Wales 2018-2019. They have four grown-up children and eight grandchildren.Paul is a patron of the Society of Mary and Martha, a retreat centre based at Sheldon, near Exeter, which specialises in supporting ministers experiencing stress, crisis, burnt-out or break-down. He is a patron of the J's Young Adults Hospice and also a company member of the Havens Hospices based in Essex.In January 2019 he became Chairman of the Cambridge Society of Essex, an alumni group which meets for lectures, lunches, and other social activities.He seeks to keep fit by engaging in a good deal of walking in the early morning.An AuthorPaul continues to be a prolific author.Since retiring from stipendiary ministry he has written a definitive guide to ministry entitled Living Out the Call (Feed-a-Read 2015; revised in 2016 and available through Amazon both electronically and as soft-backs). It consists of four volumes:Living to God's Glory (on Amazon, also available as a PDF);Leading God's Church (on Amazon, also available as a PDF);Reaching God's World (on Amazon, also available as a PDF);Serving God's Church (on Amazon, also available as a PDF).According to Derek Tidball, a former Principal of the London College of Theology. this is “the most comprehensive practical introduction to ministry currently available.He has written his autobiography, This is my story: a story of life, faith, and ministry (Wipf & Stock, Eugene, Oregon 2018). In the words of the cover blurb:This is a book for pastors – and for any Christian – who want the “inside story” of the pains and triumphs of a Christian leader.He has updated two popular pastoral resources. The first is Happy Ever After? A workbook for couples preparing for marriage (College of Baptist Ministers, Chelmsford 2017). Biblically-based and solidly practical, it covers everything from money to matrimonial disagreement, from coming to terms with the past to sharing jobs in the house. The second, A Loved One Dies: help in the first few weeks (College of Baptist Ministers, Chelmsford 2017), gives down-to earth advice on how to arrange the funeral service, and the many other practical matters that arise after a death. It also provides clear thoughts on the Christian understanding of death to help the bereaved discover hope where at first there is only sadness.Following his 2017 survey of the reading habits of British ministers – the first survey of its kind in the UK, he published a major 8000-word article, ‘Ministers' Reading Habits', Baptist Quarterly 49 (January 2018). The full analysis together with further reflections is found on this website.He has written three books on ministerial retirement.Retirement Matters for Ministers: A report into how into how Baptist ministers experience retirement (College of Baptist Ministers, Chelmsford 2018), is based on a research project and explores issues such as the transition to retirement; housing and finance; health; friendships; family; and ministry in retirement.Entering New Territory: Why are retired Baptist ministers moving to Anglican churches? (College of Baptist Ministers, Chelmsford 2019) is based on a second research project and explores the underlying theological issues.Making the Most of Retirement (Bible Reading Fellowship, Abingdon 2020) was written for ministers of all denominations and is the first such book for ministers written from a distinctively British perspective.His two latest books are:Fifty Lessons in Ministry: Reflections on Fifty Years of Ministry (Darton, Longman & Todd, London 2020) written to coincide with his 50th anniversary of ordinationThere is Hope! Preaching at Funerals will be published by IVP and surprisingly is the first British guide to preaching at funerals.He has edited two major books:Ministry Today UK: UK 1994-2018, (College of Baptist Ministers, Chelmsford 2018) is a ‘cornucopia of pastoral wisdom', whose eight volumes contain all 520 articles of the former journal of MTUK.A College of Peers: The College of Baptist Ministers 2013-2021 (College of Baptist Ministers, Chelmsford 2021) is a story of a group of a group of ministers with a passion for ministry and should be of interest to all who are concerned for the wellbeing of ministry in Baptist churches.Together with Terry Calkin he has written a series short books on leadership for pastors in the developing world: viz. The Passionate Leader: The Four Foundations of Leadership, The Visionary Leader, The Leader with Character, and The Gifted Leader.Other writings currently in print are:Happy Ever After? A Guide to the Marriage Adventure (Baptist Union 1996; Revised 2003 as Happy Ever After? A workbook for couples preparing for marriage. Revised and updated 2017 and republished by the College of Baptist Ministers.)Power For God's Sake? Power and Abuse in the Local Church (Originally published by Paternoster 1998; but since republished in 2005 by Wipf & Stock, Eugene, Oregon, USA)The Message Of The Resurrection: The Bible Speaks For Today (IVP 2000. Also published in the USA and translated into Burmese, Chinese, Romanian, Korean and Turkish);Joy to the World: Preaching at Christmas (IVP 2005 – also available in a special OM edition in India, Nepal, Oman, Qatar, UAE, Bahrein & Kuwait)Transform Your Church! 50 very practical steps (IVP 2005)A Loved One Dies: Help in The First Few Days (Baptist Union 2005; Revised 2016; Revised and republished by the College of Baptist Ministers, 2017.).Other writings currently available electronically:Building for the Future: A Guide to those considering entering a Building Project (privately printed, Central Baptist Church, Chelmsford 2003; 2nd edition 2004; electronic edition PB-M Books 2020)Radical Believers: The Baptist Way of being the Church (Baptist Union 1992, and translated into Czech, German, & Norwegian; 2nd edition 2006; electronic 3rd edition PB-M Books 2020)Radical Disciples: A Course for New Christians (Baptist Union 1996; 2nd edition 2005; electronic 3rd edition PB-M Books 2020)Radical Leaders: A Guide for Elders and Deacons in Baptist Churches (Baptist Union 1997; 2nd edition 2005; electronic 3rd edition PB-M books 2020)Baptism, Belonging and Breaking Bread: Preparing for Baptism (Baptist Union 2010; electronic 2nd edition PB-M Books 2020).Leading Teams in Larger Churches (2010): teal.org.ukA Retreat Lectionary (Society of Mary & Martha 2012; electronic edition PB-M Books 2020)Books no longer in printTurning the Tide: An Assessment of Baptist Church Growth in England (Bible Society, 1980) co-authored with Alan Wilkinson; Pastors under Pressure (Kingsway 1989); Dynamic Leadership (Monarch 1990; translated into Swedish); Faith & Festivity: A Guide For Worship Leaders (Monarch 1991); ; A Call To Excellence: An Essential Guide To Christian Leadership (Hodder & Stoughton 1995); and Fearless for Truth: A Personal Portrait of the Life of George Beasley-Murray (Paternoster 2002). He edited Mission To the World (Baptist Historical Society, 1991); Anyone For Ordination? (Monarch 1993); and along with others co-edited Prayers For All Peoples (Oncken 1993).ArticlesWith over 445 articles to his credit, he has written for a variety of publications, for the most part reflecting on the practice of ministry. For further details see paulbeasleymurray.com/articles.A BloggerSince the autumn of 2011 Paul has been publishing a weekly ‘blog' which has a world-wide following: viz Church Matters. As at the end of 2020 he had written 475 ‘posts'.For information about our upcoming training events in Indiana visit ExpositorsCollective.com The Expositors Collective podcast is part of the CGNMedia, Working together to proclaim the Gospel, make disciples, and plant churches. For more content like this, visit https://cgnmedia.org/Join our private Facebook group to continue the conversation: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ExpositorsCollective

In this episode of Flanigan's Eco-Logic, Ted speaks with Wiktor Dotter, Chief Executive Officer at ZeBeyond, a global SaaS company. Wiktor has a corporate development background in original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and Tier 1 and 2 businesses where he has facilitated decision making for boards of directors of both listed and privately held companies. The ever-changing amount of input parameters (e.g., sustainability, investment capex, profitability, electrification) driven by an increasingly volatile investment environment led Wiktor to develop tools such as ZeBeyond's ePOP technologies, which enable instant change of assumptions and turn large-scale investments into footprint or platform developments.He and Ted discuss his background, growing up in Southern Germany, attending university in Italy, and moving to Sweden ten years ago to pursue his career. In his current role as Chief Executive Officer at ZeByeond, a new global company leading the way in providing innovative and reliable system level simulation software, Wiktor and his team are providing manufacturers with an innovative, reliable, and cost-effective set of tools they can trust for their products, ensuring reductions in R&D time while supporting their sustainability commitments. ZeBeyond has established a broad set of relationships with multiple partners and collaborators including automotive OEMs, Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers, as well as sustainability life cycle centers and universities. Through these partnerships, the software company has had the opportunity to help embed sustainability into their early research and development efforts and ensure greener solutions for their systems. Wiktor shares that his vision is grounded in a commitment to engineering beyond net zero.

Born and raised in a small town in Southern Germany, Emily Koko started writing songs at the age of 13. Another 13 years and two degrees later she is finally spilling the Koko. As a songwriter-singer she values honest, deep and vulnerable lyricism. In combination with her intriguingly soulful voice, Emily's sensitive, melodic songs explore identity, relationships and try to make sense of the world we live in. Channelling inspiration from artists such as Diana Ross, Eva Cassidy, Emeli Sandé & Adele, Emily Koko's sound is a seamless cross over of pop, soul and R&B.

What an entrepreneurial journey: three college friends decide to build a gaming company. Their two biggest challenges: they have no clue about creating games or building a startup. Games bomb, investors decline, failure seems inevitable.  Just a few short years later, Idle Miner Tycoon counts 100+ million users and the three founders sell Kolibri Games for 100 million.  Daniel Stammler - entrepreneur, co-founder of Kolibri Games and a Forbes 30 under 30 laureate - shares his unique insights into how massive success does not need outside investment.   How they did it does not match preconceived notions about gaming companies. There were no literal or metaphorical ping-pong tables, just hard work and dedication.  This took them on an unlikely journey from their student apartment cum office in Southern Germany to 100+ employees in an office in Berlin (that was robbed twice, as life likes to throw in some extra challenges).   The key to unlocking growth: a great product that was improved weekly. Paired with spot-on marketing, branding and communications. Growth was slow until they got their marketing right.  Within 3 months, they 10x'd their profit and revenue. Then went on to create word of mouth and created a magnetic employer brand that attracted thousands of applications.  Subscribe to the Message Machine newsletter and become an unstoppable founder yourself.  --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/likeaceo/message

Become a missionary...after 50? Are you serious?!? Katherine Jonas is a counselor with Henegar Counseling Center, and that is exactly what she is doing. Katherine is heading to the mission field with an organization called Teach Beyond. She will be coming alongside the teachers at Black Forest Academy in Southern Germany, and she shares how God has directed every aspect of her life to prepare her for this next chapter in her walk with the Lord. CLICK HERE to learn more about Katherine and her upcoming mission.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

TODAY'S GUEST   Dr. Tobias Rees is CEO of Transformations of the Human School, and was formerly the William Dawson Chair at McGill University and the Reid Hoffman Professor of Humanities at the Parsons School of Design. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and holds degrees in philosophy, anthropology, and neurobiology.   In the early 2010s, he recognized that contemporary technology not only disrupts our historical established ways of thinking and doing, but also creates new ones: radically new possibilities that unfold beyond what we take for granted. This, he believes, is not only a sweeping event in the history of thought, but also a major opportunity; technology itself has become philosophical, and it has become possible to “do” philosophy by building and inventing new technologies.   This led him on a path to building a new institution, dedicated to the interplay of philosophy, art, science, and engineering, and to the way they blur the lines between the human and nonhuman.   EPISODE SUMMARY   In this conversation we talk about: Growing up with no books and few words in a small peasant village in Southern Germany. The importance and uses of silence which stayed with him ever since. How he became interested in philosophy, and the big questions after his grandfather's death. Moving freely from philosophy to comparative religion to anthropology and art history. The happy accident that led him to studying neurobiology and learning to see himself as a brain. The importance of concepts in framing our day-to-day experience. What do terms like human and humanity mean? When were they introduced? How did they evolve? What is the relationship between nature, humans, and machines? His work with some of the largest technology companies who are building a future to bring philosophy and art into the room. Where does creativity lie with AI algorithms like DALL·E 2? And the need to always reexamine our assumptions about the world and our values.    This conversation with Tobias is one of many weekly conversations we already have lined up for you with thinkers, designers, authors, makers, activists, and leaders who are working to change our world for the better. So follow this podcast on your favorite podcast app, or head over to RemakePod.org to subscribe.   And now let's jump right in, with Dr. Tobias Rees.   TIMESTAMP CHAPTERS   [5:18] Life in the Present [7:00] Early Childhood Silence [13:44] An Educational Journey  [22:49] The Importance of Concepts [32:04] A Period of Growth and Sadness [40:47] An Opening of Doors [44:55] The Term 'Human' [56:12] Anthropology of Machines [1:11:35] Merging Philosophy with Engineering [1:17:55] A Short Sermon   EPISODE LINKS Tobias' Links

Package made from "Training the Trainers, Part 2" b-roll about French Soldiers being trained on how to mentor the Afghan National Army at Hohenfels Training Area in Southern Germany. Produced by David Heathfield.

Package mad from the B-Roll "Training the Trainers" about Polish soldiers being trained on how to mentor the Afghan Army at a special training area in southern Germany.

Our guest this week is the impressive Dr. Anita Prasad from Southern Germany who shares with us her remarkable life experience with various career achievements and her activism for transgender rights in India. We learn about Dr. Anita's upbringing in a religious household and her transition story that began in Germany. She continues to acknowledge the progress in acceptance of transgendered communities, however, raises her concerns about the ongoing stigma and racism she faces. Dr. Anita further shares the various projects she is engaged in such as the ‘We India' campaign, an unprecedented action for the inclusivity of the LGBT+ community and educating society for acceptance, All Gender Toilet, and more. Finally, Dr. Anita highlights her observation in regards to the types she finds when dating in Germany and leaves with a piece of advice to families with LGBTQ+ kids to spend quality time, put the time into understanding, and create a loving community as well.    "Everything In The Universe Has A Value And A Purpose" ~ Hindu Proverb Mentioned in this episode: We India Campaign: https://weindiapride.com/ Ep. 141:  What Everyone Should Understand About Dating Trans Women? ~  https://www.tiffanyrossdale.com/podcast/episode/7bca454b/what-everyone-should-understand-about-dating-trans-women-with-my-transgender-date-co-founder-maki-gingoyon-part-2 Ep. 109: Understanding Sex Workers And Its Community ~ https://www.tiffanyrossdale.com/podcast/episode/78d52cea/understanding-sex-workers-and-its-community-part-2 Ep. 35: #TransLivesMatter With South Asian Transgender Advocate Anjali Rimi ~ https://www.tiffanyrossdale.com/podcast/episode/48fcfb21/translivesmatter-with-south-asian-transgender-advocate-anjali-rimi Dr. Anita Prasad is the very first Indian-origin Transgender woman in Germany and Europe. She had her engineering and software businesses across the world, has a Ph.D. from California, Alumni of the London School of Economics, and also Bangalore University. Dr. Anita Prasad has been into writing, public speaking, and influencing the LGBT+ community for the past 2 years. She is also carrying out a very large campaign in India called We India, and introducing for the first time, the All Gender Toilet system for the public in India before her campaign in July 2023. You can Follow Dr. Anita here~ https://linktr.ee/anita.prSupport the showBreakfast With Tiffany Show Official Facebook Page ~ https://www.facebook.com/breakfastwithtiffanyshow Tiffany's Instagram Account ~ https://www.instagram.com/tiffanyrossdaleofficial/ For coaching sessions & programs with Tiffany, check out her official page ~ https://www.tiffanyrossdale.com Breakfast With Tiffany Show Youtube Channel ~ https://bit.ly/3vIVzhE Breakfast With Tiffany Show Official Page ~ https://www.tiffanyrossdale.com/podcast For questions, requests, collaborations and comments, feel free to reach us via our e-mail~breakfastwithtiffanyshow@outlook.com

On this week's podcast, Blake Richetta joins us from Santa Monica, CA, where he is chairman and CEO of sonnen, the global energy storage company. Sonnen was founded in 2010, in a small town in Southern Germany, its founders driven by the desire to create a clean and affordable energy future for everyone through their sonnenBatterie. At a time when solar energy was only fed into the grid, they created a system that allows households to store and consume their self-generated energy, day and night. Today, the company, which has been a subsidiary of Shell since 2019, is a global leader in energy storage solutions with offices in Germany, Italy, Great Britain, Australia, and the US. Our guest today, whose career includes stints at Lutron and Tesla, joined sonnen six years ago as VP of sales, quickly moving up the ranks to senior vice president and now chairman and CEO. He's here today to discuss his career, the latest energy storage developments, and the business opportunities that are available to custom integrators interested in working with sonnen (and other innovators) toward the energy transition.Today's episode of Residential Tech Talks is brought to you by Shelly WiFi Relays by Allterco | Smart home devices designed and developed to provide solutions tailored to your needs. Go to https://shelly.cloud and make IoT simple!

This is not the first time that Morell Westermann visits this podcast. Those of you that were around in 2020, when we were just taking off, might remember how Morell Westermann and Malik Aziz explained here their record-setting electric flight across the whole length of Germany.Well, Morell is back at record setting, this time, at aeroFriedrichshafen, in Southern Germany. Europe's largest general aviation show, will have a special opening act with the arrival of what is intended to be the largest formation of electrically-powered aircraft ever to fly together.Electric aircraft from all over Europe will gather at an airfield in the canton of Sankt Gallen, Switzerland, and cross the water of Lake Constance to make a coordinated arrival at the show.This will be a remarkable feat in itself, but I thought that was also a good excuse to invite Morell back to the podcast in order to take the pulse of the electric aviation industry from a pilot's perspective. In addition to his work as a technology and innovation consultant and key note speaker, Morell is a keen and experienced aviator and a very active member of the, still small, but growing electric aviation community. We may even call him an evangelist of electric flight!So, tune in for an overview of a movement that is starting to transform the way people fly!

Mark Doyu Albin was a longtime student of the legendary Rinzai Zen Master Shodo Harada Roshi in Japan.  After a long period of monastic Zen practice he is now practicing as a shiatsu therapist, meditation guide, mentor, and translator. Mark lives in Southern Germany.https://www.markalbin.com/en/https://simplicityzen.com/

Starroot grew up in Southern Germany and started to create art at an early age, inspired by nature and her unlimited fantasy. She explored and practiced conscious dreaming in her early childhood. She is an entirely self-taught artist. When she was 30 years old, she had a life-changing Out of Body experience in a car accident. Starroot opened more and more for visions coming to her. In 1986 she moved with her two children to Tennessee and then to the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.

My name is Simon Arnold and I have written the book called:The Thirteen-Hour Life Coach https://www.lulu.com/shop/simon-arnold/the-thirteen-hour-life-coach/paperback/product-zjkrww.html?q=the+thirteen+hour+life+coach&page=1&pageSize=4and have a podcast in its 4th season called The Thirteen-Hour Life Coach Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/7ss0ckw3YwOF82lkEq9s2b?si=-blO2xuGSEKlh3Qi5AmoyQI have ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) and absolutely love writing and talking about it. My book details success strategies adults with ADHD (and those that think they have it) can use in their daily lives. The book took me 730 hours (one-and-a-half-years) to complete and I use my strategies every day. And I love it.The book is already in a local hospital in Immenstadt, Southern Germany as an accurate guide in how to deal with ADHD on a daily basis and also a GP practice in Oberstdorf, Bayern.I have 1300 limited copies of my book, which are numbered, have a message and are signed - available through me via my email simonjamesa893@gmail.com

Barney and Jacob talk with Molly Sponsler about her family's journey to a small town in Southern Germany and the ways that they have grown since moving there.

Synopsis The fact that a new opera might debut at the Salzburg Festival in Austria is not in itself an unusual occurrence. But in August of the year 2000, the new opera in question was "L'Amour de Loin" or "Distant Love" by the Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho – making it the first opera by a female composer ever to be staged at the prestigious international Festival, and one that opened to rave reviews. Born in Helsinki in 1952, Saariaho now lives with her husband and children in Paris. She has said that though she loves Helsinki, she's more comfortable in a city where she is not a celebrity. "I'm too well recognized in Finland," says Saariaho. "When I say this to colleagues in America, they think it's fantastic that there is a country where contemporary music composers can be esteemed public personalities." Speaking of summer-time opera premieres, Richard Wagner's "Die Walküre" had its first performance as part of his "Ring Cycle" on today's date in 1876, at Wagner's own theater in Bayreuth, a small town in Southern Germany. Some early critics thought building a big theater in such an out-of-the-way place was a monumental act of folly, but Wagnerites have been making the midsummer pilgrimage there for over 125 years – despite the lack of air-conditioning in Wagner's theater. Appropriately, it's some of the warmest music from "Die Walküre" – the "Magic Fire" scene that brings the opera to its close. Music Played in Today's Program Kaija Saariaho (b. 1952) –…à la fumée (Petri Alanko, f; Anssi Karttunen, vcl; Los Angeles Philharmonic; Esa-Pekka Salonen, cond.) Ondine 804 Richard Wagner (1813-1883) –Magic Fire Music, fr Die Walküre (Cleveland Orchestra; George Szell, cond.) CBS/Sony 46286

This episode of Doomer Optimism has Jason Snyder (@cognazor) having a conversation with Richard Flynn (@Richard_Flyer) about building a sustainable global commonwealth of bioregional economies. About Richard Flynn Richard has been building local community and bioregional ecosystems for the last 40 years. He has integrated his lifelong experiences of spiritual formation with his love of nature; trained as a marine and evolutionary biologist, studying pilot whale and dolphin communication; and then applied what he learned to community development. Experiences of what he calls “Nature's Web” led him to travel to Mexico in the 1980's to apprentice with an Aztec Indian/Christian medicine woman, a curandara, where he experienced indigenous wisdom and followed with training in Tibetan Buddhist meditation. He was a leader of non-profit organizations, having formed a neighborhood network in a low income, multi-ethnic area of San Diego, California. This was followed by leading the San Diego Food Bank, and to Reno to lead a statewide microfinance organization. It was then that he shifted focus to become an entrepreneur in the medical field of hyperbaric oxygen therapy, where he continues supporting therapy centers in the western US. Richard Flyer is back in the US after 6 months in Sri Lanka, where he was working with Sarvodaya, the world's largest national bioregional network of communities. It was Mahatma Gandhi and his vision of a commonwealth of village republics, passed to the Sarvodaya movement in Sri Lanka that inspired him to translate universal principles into an urban western community context. Currently, he is working on various regenerative community projects, what he calls “Symbiotic Networks” --- a syntropic food forest project in North Kohala, Big Island, Hawaii and a local food system network in Oahu, Hawaii. He divides his time between Southern Germany, and Hawaii. Richard is launching the Symbiotic Culture Lab in Fall 2022 to promote Symbiotic Culture and Community to support bioregions around the world that want to learn to activate their own Symbiotic Networks. His book on the birth of the Symbiotic Age will be coming out Fall 2022. Best to find him on Twitter or LinkedIn, as his website, Symbiotic Culture Lab is being launched soon. About Jason Synder Metamodern localist | homesteading, permaculture, bioregional regeneration | meditation, self inquiry, embodied cognition | PhD from Michigan State University, faculty Appalachian State University.

TODAY'S GUEST   Dr. Tobias Rees is CEO of Transformations of the Human School, and was formerly the William Dawson Chair at McGill University and the Reid Hoffman Professor of Humanities at the Parsons School of Design. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and holds degrees in philosophy, anthropology, and neurobiology.   In the early 2010s, he recognized that contemporary technology not only disrupts our historical established ways of thinking and doing, but also creates new ones: radically new possibilities that unfold beyond what we take for granted. This, he believes, is not only a sweeping event in the history of thought, but also a major opportunity; technology itself has become philosophical, and it has become possible to “do” philosophy by building and inventing new technologies.   This led him on a path to building a new institution, dedicated to the interplay of philosophy, art, science, and engineering, and to the way they blur the lines between the human and nonhuman.   EPISODE SUMMARY   In this conversation we talk about: Growing up with no books and few words in a small peasant village in Southern Germany. The importance and uses of silence which stayed with him ever since. How he became interested in philosophy, and the big questions after his grandfather's death. Moving freely from philosophy to comparative religion to anthropology and art history. The happy accident that led him to studying neurobiology and learning to see himself as a brain. The importance of concepts in framing our day-to-day experience. What do terms like human and humanity mean? When were they introduced? How did they evolve? What is the relationship between nature, humans, and machines? His work with some of the largest technology companies who are building a future to bring philosophy and art into the room. Where does creativity lie with AI algorithms like DALL·E 2? And the need to always reexamine our assumptions about the world and our values.    This conversation with Tobias is one of many weekly conversations we already have lined up for you with thinkers, designers, authors, makers, activists, and leaders who are working to change our world for the better. So follow this podcast on your favorite podcast app, or head over to RemakePod.org to subscribe.   And now let's jump right in, with Dr. Tobias Rees.   TIMESTAMP CHAPTERS   [5:18] Life in the Present [7:00] Early Childhood Silence [13:44] An Educational Journey  [22:49] The Importance of Concepts [32:04] A Period of Growth and Sadness [40:47] An Opening of Doors [44:55] The Term 'Human' [56:12] Anthropology of Machines [1:11:35] Merging Philosophy with Engineering [1:17:55] A Short Sermon   EPISODE LINKS Tobias' Links

Music Around The World is a music segment featuring various artist and music. Some of these artists are from the United States, while others are from other countries across the globe. In this episode we will be featuring:  Psycho & Plastic, DJ Enrico Sangiuliano, duo Eevee and Cliffe, Jonathan Rosa and Music News. https://masonverapaine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/17.-MFAW-Episode-59.mp3 MFAW Episode 59: Transcription  Intro: 0:00 to 0:15Mason Paine here and this is episode 59 of Music From Around The World. In this episode I will be featuring music from:  Psycho & Plastic, duo Eevee and Cliffe, DJ Enrico Sangiuliano, Jonathan Rosa and Music News. Psycho & Plastic: Start – 0:16     and     End – 4:55Up first is Psycho & Plastic; a musical duo that has been creating music together for over 10 years. Alexandre Decoupigny and Thomas Tichai are from Southern Germany and met in Liverpool before forming the group and moving to Berlin. The duo has released three albums and two EPs over the years. Take a listen here to their latest track: Fragile Targets. Fragile Targets is out now via Give Us Your Gold and it's on all streaming platforms. The group upcoming LP Phantom Bliss will be released on July 8th. This ambient duo have already have earned over four million plays across various platforms. For the latest on the duo and their upcoming projects visit: psychoandplastic.com;  that's P-S-Y-C-H-O-A-N-D-P-L-A-S-T-I-C DOT COM Enrico Sangiuliano: Start – 4:58   and    End – 10:42Our next artist is an Italian DJ, producer, and sound designer by the name of Enrico Sangiuliano. His work is characterized as anthemic and melodic techno. Take a listen to his latest track Silence (Inner Mix) Silent (Inner Mix) is out now via Nine to Zero records and it's on all streaming platforms.  As a child, he was fascinated by noises and sounds made by everyday objects. However, it was during his teenage years that he turned his attention to technology and started learning how to create music on his computer at home in the 1990s. This paved the way for him to become the prominent musician and producer he is today. For the latest on Enrico's latest projects visit: instagram.com/enricosangiuliano; that's Instagram.com/E-N-R-I-C-O-S-A-N-G-I-U-L-I-A-N-O News Break 1: 10:44 to 11:46Story A:  New JPop Group Inspired By Sailor MoonStory B: Monstercat 11th Anniversary Celebration Eevee and Cliffe: Start – 11:47   and   End – 15:10Our next artist is an Italian DJ, producer, and sound designer by the name of Enrico Sangiuliano. His work is characterized by anthemic and melodic techno. Take a listen to his latest track Silence (Inner Mix) Silent (Inner Mix) is out now via Nine to Zero records and it's on all streaming platforms.  As a child, he was fascinated by noises and sounds made by everyday objects. However, it was during his teenage years that he turned his attention to technology and started learning how to create music on his computer at home in the 1990s. This paved the way for him to become the renowned musician and producer he is today. For the latest on Enrico's latest projects visit: instagram.com/enricosangiuliano; that's Instagram.com/E-N-R-I-C-O-S-A-N-G-I-U-L-I-A-N-O News Break 2: 15:12 to 15:59Story A: Spotify New Super Grouper FeatureStory B: Daft Punk semi update Jonathan Rosa: Start – 16:00    and  End – 24:16Our final artist Jonathan Rosa is a DJ based out of Toronto, Canada. He is known for his diversity and ability to play a wide range of genres, from deep melodic house to techno. He has been getting track play support from well-known artists such as Lee Burridge and Carl Cox, and is making waves in the dance music scene. Take a listen to his latest track Sacred Dance. Sacred Dance is out now via Mirrors Label and it's on all streaming platforms. Since his emergence on the electronic music scene, DJ and producer Jonathan has built a reputation for himself as a headlining...

Southern Germany is often referred to as the land of fairytales. The Black Forest in Bavaria is a traveller's paradise. Join Jonathan van Bilsen as he explores Neuschwanstein Castle, discovers some interesting facts about Octoberfest, visits Frankfurt and Munich and travels along the Rhine

A lively conversation with farmer Haleigh Christ while picking a crop of green beans at a  biodynamic Black Forest farm.  As her two toddlers play underfoot and farm life bustles all around, Haleigh shares about day to day life as a regenerative farmer and the important personal choices on the path towards harmony with one's life-affirming values.The topics of this episode include:Why food is possibly our most significant connection with the ecosystemThe difference between organic and biodynamic farmingThe carnivorous wonders of healthy soilLiving in tune with the cycles of lifeFrom consumer to ecological co-creatorHaleigh Christ is a regenerative farmer living and farming in Southern Germany.  She lives with her husband and two children on a bio-dynamic community farm, which does its best to live in harmony with its ecosystem. She lives passionately for strengthening communities and ecosystems through empowerment of the individual within the whole. Her current focus is in building a community supported agriculture program to extend the farm's current self-sufficiency onto others. She is excited for the future and believes that we have endless opportunities to connect and heal through food!To learn more about the place, humans and animals check out www.klosterhofsitzenkirch.de Quotes and references mentioned by Haleigh during the conversation:Michael Pollan (Voting With Your Fork)Zach Bush, MDRené Descartes, French philosopher, mathematician, scientist. (1596-1650)David Hume, Scottish Enlightenment philosopher, historian, economist, librarian. (1711-76)Dugald Stewart,  Scottish philosopher and mathematician. (1753-1828)Support the show

We often have the feeling of “if only this would happen” or “change, then all would be okay.” Yet ultimately what is just simply is, and it is already whole, complete, and one for no one. There is no finding this or losing this—it apparently just is. Andreas Müller joins Hale Dwoskin in this episode of “Letting Go & The Greatest Secret.” Andreas Müller was born in 1979 in Ludwigsburg in Southern Germany. After years of seeking in spirituality, he met Tony Parsons in 2009. Since 2011, Andreas has been holding talks and intensives throughout the world. Learn more and connect with Andreas at www.TheTimelessWonder.com, www.Facebook.com/TheTimelessWonder, www.Instagram.com/TheTimelessWonder, and www.YouTube.com/channel/UCUDHF50UGsuhC_oVDJXCC5Q. Hale Dwoskin is the author of the New York Times best seller "The Sedona Method" and the coauthor of "Happiness Is Free: And It's Easier Than You Think" with Lester Levenson. He has been helping people let go and discover their true nature since 1976. He is also one of the featured teachers in Rhonda Byrne's book and movie phenomenon "The Secret" as well as a featured teacher in "The Greatest Secret." Learn more about Hale and the Sedona Method at www.Sedona.com, www.YouTube.com/User/TheSedonaMethod, www.Facebook.com/TheSedonaMethod, and www.Instagram.com/TheSedonaMethodOfficial. To comment or ask a question about this episode please go to our channel on YouTube at https://youtu.be/3MhTczqMPPw.

Joe and Caroline discuss some of their favorite activities that they like to do with the kids when it is raining outside. Plus Caroline tells us what is bugging her in children's TV and Joe has not one, not two but three dad jokes this week!What We Are DrinkingCaroline's Drink: Voodoo Ranger Juice Force IPA New Belgium - Fort Collins, COHazy Imperial IPAABV: 9.5%Joe's Drink: Helles West Side Brewing - Westwood, OhioABV: 5.4%IBU: 18"A classic pale lager style originating in Southern Germany, our Munich style lager is a bright golden color. Soft, malty aromas of rising bread are followed by flavors reminiscent of biscuit and bread dough and it finishes crisp and balanced with just enough hops to balance the malt. Prost!"***Thank you so much for listening! If you like what you hear, please consider leaving us a rating and review. Also, help us spread the word about the podcast so we can grow! You can send us feedback, comments, and questions at craftparentingpodcast@gmail.com.Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Subscribe to our new monthly newsletter to get our content delivered straight to your inbox. Visit our website at https://www.craftparentingpodcast.com.Finally, if you would like to send us anything here's our PO Box address:  Craft Parenting PodcastP.O. Box 112294Cincinnati, Ohio 45211Subscribe to the show on your favorite podcatcher and if you like what you hear, share the show with your friends and leave us a rating and review.   We are available on:Apple PodcastsSpotify Overcast Podcast AddictStitcherYouTubeand all major platforms!

Jonathan Humphries, your host, is in conversation with Jochen Renz. Given the challenges in the hospitality industry around recruitment, retainment, compensation and operating efficiencies, following two years of pandemic related challenges, in this podcast, we showcase a hotel which is operating in an agile way. This discussion is a case study on how it is possible to thing, lead, manage and respond in a post-covid world with constant uncertainty. How can we better engage our employees in operational effectiveness and deliver a higher quality customer experience?When this podcast was recorded, Jochen Renz was yet Multi Property Regional Manager for SV Group in the Zurich Area, including the 252-room Renaissance Zurich Tower, on which this case study is based. After this recording was made, Jochen has taken on a new position as AI Vice President Operations Switzerland & Southern Germany at Accor. Related episodes:“Agile Leadership: Transforming teams and individuals – Being agile and doing agile” – with Markus Feller“Leading Dynamically – The four principles of Leadership PART 1” – with Patrick GhielmettiJoin us for this enlightening conversation! Follow our journey and our discussion with some of the most renowned and influential people of our time.Subscribe to our channel, under HoCoSo CONVERSATION, on:  Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Castro, Stitcher, Podcast addict, Podchaser, Deezer, Listen notes, Tune In, iHeart Radio, and many more...

Jonathan Humphries, your host, is in conversation with Jochen Renz. Given the challenges in the hospitality industry around recruitment, retainment, compensation and operating efficiencies, following two years of pandemic related challenges, in this podcast, we showcase a hotel which is operating in an agile way. This discussion is a case study on how it is possible to thing, lead, manage and respond in a post-covid world with constant uncertainty. How can we better engage our employees in operational effectiveness and deliver a higher quality customer experience?When this podcast was recorded, Jochen Renz was yet Multi Property Regional Manager for SV Group in the Zurich Area, including the 252-room Renaissance Zurich Tower, on which this case study is based. After this recording was made, Jochen has taken on a new position as AI Vice President Operations Switzerland & Southern Germany at Accor. Related episodes:“Agile Leadership: Transforming teams and individuals – Being agile and doing agile” – with Markus Feller“Leading Dynamically – The four principles of Leadership PART 1” – with Patrick GhielmettiJoin us for this enlightening conversation! Follow our journey and our discussion with some of the most renowned and influential people of our time.Subscribe to our channel, under HoCoSo CONVERSATION, on:  Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Castro, Stitcher, Podcast addict, Podchaser, Deezer, Listen notes, Tune In, iHeart Radio, and many more...

It is the year 1632. The beautiful, remote town of Oberammergau nestles in the Bavarian Alps of Southern Germany - quietly and securely isolated from the turmoil and torment of the Bubonic plague that ravages the rest of Europe.A humble woodcarver, Kasper Schisler returns to his home in Oberammergau from his labours in a nearby village. But unbeknown to him and the other inhabitants of the town, he silently carries with him the seeds of a calamity that will wreak havoc, terror, and destruction on Oberammergau and its people. Within a year of this day, over one-quarter of the residents of the town will be dead - claimed by the dreaded plague, the Black Death. This will give rise to an extraordinary covenant with God that still resonates to this day.

•  Because of my background in Kasztan, I really wanted to have a career that would allow me to be financially independent and have a positive impact in the world. So I decided to go into engineering, and during my program, it was a small university in Southern Germany, a program is called International Project Engineering, and I learned a lot about different engineering subjects, project management and the intercultural competencies. And as part of the program, I had to go abroad for half a year to work at a manufacturing companies, I applied to so many exotic countries, initially I wanted to go to Asia or South America, and then the most interesting offer came from Waukesha Wisconsin, which is a small town here in Wisconsin, like, Where in the hell is Waukesha? But it sounded so interesting, and I love material sciences, especially steel and it was a German steel cutting tool facility that offered a job in quality assurance.  (2:47)•  I repeated over and over again that I loved my job, I love working in manufacturing, and I love working on construction projects, and I didn't really want to leave my job, but then after these massive projects were, then I got really bored and I thought about the fact that I need to do something more in my life, and I need to do something that really matters. So my husband and I gave ourselves a full year to decide whether we want to stay in the corporate world, in this case, I would have done my Master's in the electrical engineering, and he planned to do his MBA or we would start a business together. So by the end of the year, we didn't have a decision, so we decided to go up North for a whole weekend and brainstormed a lot of different ideas. Then... I told him, You know what, I've been thinking about the safety shoe idea for a long time. There's a real need.  (8:43)•  During that accelerator program, we actually launched with our first product, which is, I call it the gravity boot. It's so cute, I love it! Thank you. It's kind of, I call it the walk-through boots, which is, it's designed for women, as for myself, who spend most of the time in an office and once in a while go through a manufacturing facility, but need to be safe having a slip-resistant out sole and the steel toe  cap,  protective toe cap. And over time, so after we get the funding, we started working on an additional model, which is now our best-selling shoe. We made a boot that was driven by women in construction who said, I need ankle coverage, I need an electric hazard certification and a lower heel, with the 90 degree angle. So that's when the Omega came into play. And I see so many women wearing it. (17:05)•  Yeah, we try to run a very lean operations depending on the day, all of us, we're wearing different hats. Wednesdays are my product development days, Fridays are more social media days, so it really depends. We just hired our fifth team member who will be starting on Monday. As the founder and CEO of the company I focus on things like product development, because I worked in a space and I talk to women in manufacturing and construction and similar fields on a regular basis. I'm responsible for fundraising, strategic planning, we talk briefly about traction, implementing, creating a mission for the company to make sure that everyone rose in the same direction, it's incredibly important, because sometimes you can come off track. Where does that new person fit in your organizational chart? She will be taking over customer service. Before that, my husband helped with operations, making sure, shipping our products to our warehouse, making sure our customers get their products on time. (22:14)ABOUT ANASTASIA KRAFT:Ana Kraft is the Founder and CEO of Xena Workwear - a company that creates fashionable safety shoes and functional apparel for women in STEM and the Trades. This new category of workwear helps professional women be safe and feel confident in any work environment. Transitioning between the office, to the construction site or manufacturing floor has never been so easy. Ana holds a degree in International Project Engineering from Reutlingen University in Germany and currently resides in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The causes that drive her include sustainable development, education and maximizing opportunities for women.CONNECT WITH ANASTASIA:•  Website: https://xenaworkwear.com•  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/xenaworkwear•  Twitter: https://twitter.com/xenaworkwear•  Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/challenge/?next=/xenaworkwear•  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/xena-workwearWAYS TO CONNECT WITH STEFANIE…• Website: https://shebuildshomes.com• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shebuildsbetter• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebuilds.homes• YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/shebuildsshow

Today on the podcast, I'm talking with Dirk Fischer, an automotive General Manager, Lean Operations Engineering supply chain and Quality Manager expert with more than 25 years of experience. In this episode, Dirk and I go over system waste, what's causing it and how you can avoid it. We also go over holistic business excellence and how it relates to system waste. What You'll Learn This Episode: Dirk's background in Lean and how he got started The definition of System Waste How to identify and eliminate System Waste Holistic Business Excellence How Holistic Business Excellence can help with System Waste How you can help drive the Holistic Business approach Aspects of Lean that are potentially untapped About the Guest: I was born June, 20th 1970 in the Stuttgart area, Southern Germany and finished my mechanical engineering study in September 1992. I am an automotive General Manager, lean operations, engineering, supply chain and quality management expert with more than 25 years of experience, consistently proving the ability to holistically turn around underperforming plants and groups of plants. The various turnarounds were mainly achieved through inspiring leadership for change and creating a LEAN KPI driven continuous improvement culture. I continuously implement effective action plans, which are designed to rapidly improve Customer satisfaction, Quality, Cost, Delivery, Safety, Morale AND Working Capital and therefore delivering sustainable bottom line results. The pattern of success was usually to start with intensive observations on the shop floor (Go to Gemba) to really understand the problems, detailed discussions and reflections with the team, coaching the plant management team in order to establish and implement the most important actions, define high impact KPIs, provide tools to monitor progress and review frequently for effectiveness of implemented actions. This approach enabled me to frequently develop high performance teams. My leadership style and my acting and thinking is highly influenced by Deming/Ackoff/Toyota Way/ Theory of Constraints/Stephen Covey and others. In the past 10 years I held various COO/CRO roles with a responsibility ranging from a single plant with 50 million € of sales up to international multi site responsibility with 20 plants and 3,6 billion € of sales. Having worked for more than 10 years for international Anglo-American companies with strong financial focus, I am used to work in environments with strong financial controls and reporting and intensive budgeting processes. Important Links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dirk-fischer-06850011?trk=author_mini-profile_title&originalSubdomain=de https://www.gaoexperts.com/ --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/leansolutions/support

On this week's episode of the Craft Parenting Podcast, Hillary and Caroline continue their discussion about pregnancy, including labor, giving birth, breastfeeding, and more. Remember, fed is best!Joe and Caroline record on location at West Side Brewing (@westsidebrewing) in Westwood to grab some local craft beers and talk about some highlights from the last week. Caroline tells us what is bugging her on children's TV and Joe tells a frightening dad joke. Finally, they talk about Marco's (co-host of the Truth, Beer, and Podsequences (@truthbeerpod) podcast) alleged ambition to be the king of Cincinnati podcasts.This is part two in our series all about pregnancy. Listen to part one of the discussion here.What We Are DrinkingWest Side Brewing - Westwood, OhioBlood Orange Common AleABV: 4.7%IBU: 21“Clean, crisp, and refreshing. A slightly sweet, lightly malty aroma fades into a dry, snappy finish. The perfect beer for those looking for lighter, more delicate flavors. (But with blood orange flavors)”West Side Brewing - Westwood, OhioPorterABV: 5.8%IBU: 42“Deep-brown, bordering on black, this porter boasts a malty aroma filled with chocolate notes and a hint of roast. Malt sweetness pairs with flavors of baker's chocolate and lightly piney hops for a smooth, full-bodied drink with just enough bitterness to keep it balanced.”West Side Brewing - Westwood, OhioMunich HellesABV: 5.4%IBU: 18“A classic pale lager from Southern Germany, our Munich Helles is a bright golden color. Soft malty aromas of rising bread are followed by flavors of biscuit and bread dough, and finish crisp and balanced, with just enough hops to balance the malt. Prost!”***Thank you so much for listening! If you like what you hear, please consider leaving us a rating and review. Also, help us spread the word about the podcast so we can grow! You can send us feedback, comments, and questions at craftparentingpodcast@gmail.com.Follow us on Facebook and Instagram.Visit our website at https://www.craftparentingpodcast.com.   Subscribe to our new monthly newsletter to get our content delivered straight to your inbox.Finally, if you would like to send us anything here's our PO Box address:Craft Parenting PodcastP.O. Box 112294Cincinnati, Ohio 45211 Subscribe to the show on your favorite podcatcher and if you like what you hear, share the show with your friends and leave us a rating and review.     We are available on:Apple PodcastsSpotify Overcast Podcast AddictStitcherand all major platforms!

We have been busy doing some traveling and celebrating both of our birthdays over the past two weeks. But we have missed you guys and we have lots of fun stories to share about our trips to Southern Germany and our first hiking experience in Switzerland. Enjoy our special Birthday Episode and don't forget that […]

Everyone knows about Krampus, but have you heard of the other German creatures that are making sure you are good? This week, we are diving into the story of Belsnickel, as well as some good ol German Christmas traditions and a darker companion named Knecht Ruprecht. Don't forget to send us your personal stories or suggestions at notsogreatoutdoors@gmail.com. For more information, including our research sources, go to https://www.thenotsogreatoutdoors.com.

In this episode of “Germany for Asians” Francoise and Andy discuss how Christmas in Germany is celebrated differently than in English-speaking countries, what some of the traditions are and how they differ between Northern and Southern Germany. This episode is a perfect and “quick” insider guide for those who are interested in this most important of German holidays. Merry Christmas everyone!

FULL SHOWNOTES HERE!This post may contain affiliate links, meaning we would get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through these links, at no cost to you. In today's episode, we'll be talking to Donna from Green Earth Travel. Donna is a veteran travel agent and for many years was the only vegan travel agent in the world. Donna has seen the vegan travel and food industry explode from the slim pickings of sauerkraut for several days in a row in Southern Germany to the rise of the vegan hotel. Donna shares the story about her career as a vegan travel agent, why you should consider using the services of a travel agent and the importance of travel insurance. Donna also dispels myths about hiring a travel agent. Spoiler alert, travel agents do not make your holiday more expensive! Timestamps:3:30 How Green Earth Travel started8:15 The vegan travel scene in the 80s11:25 What does a travel agent do?20:59 Why travel insurance is an essential expense and what to be aware of29:20 Myths about travel agentsPlaces we talk about:Travelguard Travel insurance covering petsGreen Earth Travel - Donna's websiteOther World Vegan Travel content connected with this episode18 Podcasts to inspire vegan travelers + new release20 top travel destinations in Africa that Vegans need to visit (Part-2)20 top travel destinations in Africa that Vegans need to visit (Part-1)Why bother with travel insurance?Lessons learned from an extended tripConnect with DonnaWebsiteFacebookTwitterRelevant TripsNEW YEAR IN BOTSWANA & CAPE TOWN 28 December 2020 - 6 January 2021Connect with World Vegan TravelFacebook PageFacebook GroupInstagramLinkedinTwitter​You Tube