Podcasts about Stealth

Is cortisol really the enemy? Or have we completely misunderstood this essential hormone? In this fascinating conversation, Dr. Erin Kinney breaks down what healthy cortisol should actually look like, how chronic stress can leave us stuck in a cycle of exhaustion, and the surprising signs that your nervous system may be dysregulated. We share our own burnout experiences as we explore the connections between cortisol, blood sugar, thyroid function, perimenopause, caffeine, intermittent fasting, and even fasted workouts. Dr. Kinney also reveals why multitasking, emotional suppression, and stealth infections can keep the body in stress mode—and what we can do to strengthen our “relax muscle.” If you've ever felt exhausted but wired, relied on caffeine to get through the day, or wondered why your body isn't responding to all the “healthy” things you're doing, this episode is a must-listen!Dr. Erin Kinney is a Naturopathic Doctor, speaker, and podcast host who helps stressed-out patients balance their hormones, improve their mood, and restore their energy. She runs a private practice in Annapolis, Maryland, specializing in chronic health conditions related to hormonal and nervous-system imbalances, and has guided more than 7,000 people back to vibrant health through her clinic, workshops, retreats, and online programs. Outside of work, she loves spending time with her husband and their five children. SHOW NOTES:0:38 Welcome to the podcast!3:27 About Dr. Erin Kinney4:08 Welcome her to the show!5:36 Why do we need cortisol?7:55 Energy surplus vs deficit10:26 A normal cortisol pattern12:28 Cortisol crash & adrenaline13:55 Perimenopause advice14:30 Lauren & Renee's burnout stories16:06 Signs & symptoms of dysregulated cortisol20:41 How to strengthen your relax muscle22:58 Cortisol testing26:24 How cortisol affects thyroid30:23 Taking a “bed day”32:23 The impact of multi-tasking38:37 Glucose-Cortisol relationship41:08 Intermittent Fasting43:05 Vicious caffeine-sedative cycle44:27 Fasted workouts & fat burning47:35 Stealth infections & cortisol52:03 How emotional suppression affects cortisol57:23 Where to find her book58:04 Her final piece of advice58:40 Thanks for tuning in!RESOURCES:Book: The Cortisol CureWebsiteInstagramPodcastYouTubeFacebookAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Find and follow Matt here:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/matt.freeman69#Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/matt_freeman_1/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@matt_freeman.14?lang=enYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@NotStealthyRacing

Pride is so sneaky! It's stealthy. If we are not aware, it will creep in and bring destruction to our lives. How can we defend against pride, and what should we be aware of in our own lives to push back on pride? In Daniel 5, we read the story of a king who refused to learn from the past, and who loses his kingdom due to him not recognizing how pride had consumed him. Discover how the mysterious handwriting on the wall (Mene, Mene, Tekel, Peres) is a warning to all of us today.

Trump says he is banning CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House, effective immediately. The U.S. State Department has approved a $24 billion dollar sale of fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, while China is pressing Iran to rein in the Houthis as they close in on one of the world's most critical shipping lanes. Germany's far-right AfD party talks of restarting Russian oil shipments. And as the International Space Station winds down, drugmakers want to head into orbit. Podcasts, breaking news, and video analysis from the source. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Download the Reuters app here.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Listen to the Morning Bid podcast ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Sign up for the Reuters Econ World newsletter ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Listen to the Reuters Econ World podcast ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Visit the ⁠⁠Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt out of targeted advertising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Medical Device Security Challange: Balancing Patient Safety, Risk, & Innovation On this episode host Jessica Davis invites Mike Kijewski, CEO of Medcrypt, to discuss progress in medical device security and continued pain points in the wake of regulatory shifts and resource and patch management challenges. To stream our Station live 24/7 visit www.HealthcareNOWRadio.com or ask your Smart Device to “….Play Healthcare NOW Radio”.

In this solo episode of What Happens in Vagus, Dr. Stephanie Canestraro gets personal about the health journey she has experienced over the last several years and what she has learned about long COVID, mast cell activation, dysautonomia, stealth infections and the complex cascade of symptoms that can happen when the immune system becomes dysregulated. Dr. Steph shares why someone can be healthy and functioning normally for years before an infection or another stressor suddenly brings underlying issues to the surface, and why symptoms such as unexplained anxiety, panic, tachycardia, brain fog, swelling, digestive issues, sleep disruption, fatigue and exercise intolerance may have deeper physiological drivers. She explains the connection between the spike protein, ACE2 receptors, mast cells, histamine, blood flow, endothelial dysfunction, microclotting, mitochondria, electrolyte imbalances and the nervous system, while emphasizing that calming the nervous system alone may not address the underlying problem. Dr. Steph also walks through some of the foundational strategies and tools that supported her own recovery, including electrolytes and minerals, compression, lymphatic support, nutrition, mitochondrial support, binders, nervous system regulation and addressing the infections and other factors contributing to the overall picture. Most importantly, she shares a message she wishes more people struggling with these symptoms would hear: this is not your fault, and feeling unwell does not mean you are weak. Your symptoms are messages from your body, and understanding the bigger picture can be an important part of finding a path forward.Let us know your thoughts on this episode hereFor any further information, feel free to email us at info@vagusclinic.com.  Our team is happy to help.  We offer 20-minute complimentary health calls, and you can sign up for one here.

Pack Nation, are you hearing this? The absolute, deafening silence from the N F L and those jabronis in the N F C North has Big Sal fired up! While the meatball commentators scratch their heads, Sal sees the truth: this quiet isn't empty, it's confirmation that your Green Bay Packers are building a silent, unstoppable freight train ready to roll. Sal breaks down why the Vikings, Bears, and Lions are so quiet—they're scared! They're watching Jordan Love and the young defense grow, frozen in a state of paralysis while Green Bay's deceptive silence becomes a strategic masterstroke. It's not just fear, it's grudging respect for a team built to dominate in the dark, honing a green and gold wrecking ball nobody sees coming. Don't miss Sal's guarantee for the N F C North! Make sure you subscribe to Let Me Tell You Somethin', leave us a five-star review, and share this episode with every football fan you know. Support the show and Sal's takes over at patreon.com/pack_daddy. Go Pack Go! This episode is brought to you by PrizePicks! Use code PACKDADDY to get started with America's #1 fantasy sports app. https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/PACKDADDY To advertise on this podcast please email: ad-sales@libsyn.com Or go to: https://advertising.libsyn.com/packernetpodcast Check out everything I'm building across the Packers and NFL world: NFL Draft Grades: https://nfldraftgrades.com/ Hashmarks: https://hashmarks.io/

Pack Nation, are you hearing this? The absolute, deafening silence from the N F L and those jabronis in the N F C North has Big Sal fired up! While the meatball commentators scratch their heads, Sal sees the truth: this quiet isn't empty, it's confirmation that your Green Bay Packers are building a silent, unstoppable freight train ready to roll. Sal breaks down why the Vikings, Bears, and Lions are so quiet—they're scared! They're watching Jordan Love and the young defense grow, frozen in a state of paralysis while Green Bay's deceptive silence becomes a strategic masterstroke. It's not just fear, it's grudging respect for a team built to dominate in the dark, honing a green and gold wrecking ball nobody sees coming. Don't miss Sal's guarantee for the N F C North! Make sure you subscribe to Let Me Tell You Somethin', leave us a five-star review, and share this episode with every football fan you know. Support the show and Sal's takes over at patreon.com/pack_daddy. Go Pack Go! This episode is brought to you by PrizePicks! Use code PACKDADDY to get started with America's #1 fantasy sports app. https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/PACKDADDY To advertise on this podcast please email: ad-sales@libsyn.com Or go to: https://advertising.libsyn.com/packernetpodcast Check out everything I'm building across the Packers and NFL world: NFL Draft Grades: https://nfldraftgrades.com/ Hashmarks: https://hashmarks.io/

Michael Green dissects the K-shaped economic recovery, where high interest rates exacerbate wealth inequality. He argues the Fed's focus on aggregate data overlooks the struggles of lower-income households, leading to rising delinquencies and credit reliance. Green also exposes how tariff refunds meant to stimulate the economy became a stealth stimulus for corporate bottom lines, widening the economic chasm.======== Schwab Network ========Empowering every investor and trader, every market day. Subscribe to the Market Minute newsletter - https://schwabnetwork.com/subscribeDownload the iOS app - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/schwab-network/id1460719185Download the Amazon Fire Tv App - https://www.amazon.com/TD-Ameritrade-Network/dp/B07KRD76C7Watch on Sling - https://watch.sling.com/1/asset/191928615bd8d47686f94682aefaa007/watchWatch on Vizio - https://www.vizio.com/en/watchfreeplus-exploreWatch on DistroTV - https://www.distro.tv/live/schwab-network/Follow us on X – https://twitter.com/schwabnetworkFollow us on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/schwabnetworkFollow us on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/schwab-network/ About Schwab Network - https://schwabnetwork.com/about

After hunting the same South Carolina buck for five years, Joe Miles finally got his chance at the 150-inch deer—and put an arrow through him. In this episode, I sit down with Joe Miles, owner of ASIO Gear, to talk about that hunt, the lessons that came from chasing one deer for five years, and the thought that goes into building some of the quietest hunting clothing on the market. Joe breaks down the new Stealth Jacket and Pant, including why ASIO designed the line specifically for those dead-calm days when even the smallest noise can blow a hunt. We talk about the fabric, wind resistance, ideal temperature range, hood design, saddle-hunting pockets, rangefinder pockets, full-zip pants, and the little details that can make a big difference when you're sitting close to a deer. We also get into how to properly layer the Stealth line with the Core Warmth Vest and Puffy Jacket.  . . . Promo Codes: Raised Scents : https://www.raisedhunting.com/?ref=THEFALLPOD10 Latitude Outdoors: thefall Faceoff Ebikes: TFP Asio Gear: FALL20 Kuhle Archery: FALL25 . . . Partner Websites: Jays Sporting Goods - https://www.jayssportinggoods.com/ Latitude Outdoors - https://www.latitudeoutdoors.com/ Garmin Bow Sights - https://www.garmin.com/en-US/c/outdoor-recreation/sportsman-and-tactical-devices/ Prime Archery - https://www.g5prime.com/ Asio Gear - https://asiogear.com?utm_source=pro&utm_medium=fall Faceoff Hunting Ebikes - https://www.faceoffebikes.com/ Michigan Buckpole - https://mibuckpole.com/ Vitalize Seed Company - https://vitalizeseed.com/ Kuhle Archery - https://kuhlearchery.com/ Everland Outdoors - https://everlandoutdoors.com/  Moonguide - https://moonguide.com/ Moultrie - https://www.moultrie.com/ Raised Scents - https://www.raisedhunting.com/?ref=THEFALLPOD10 Don't forget to check out the Fall Podcast Youtube channel for new content. Subscribe to the channel as well. Thank you. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWSCcGJeHHxejFXBZAO83QA For updates from The Fall Podcast: The Fall Podcast on Instagram - The Fall Podcast The Fall Podcast on Facebook - The Fall Podcast Facebook The Fall Podcast Youtube Channel - The Fall Podcast Youtube Channel Subscribe and Rate us on Itunes: SUBSCRIBE to The Fall Podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Am 24. September 2026 erscheint SILENT HILL: TOWNFALL – und der nächste Albtraum aus Konamis Horror-Reihe schlägt dabei einige neue Wege ein.Nachdem Silent Hill f 2025 innerhalb der Community durchaus kontrovers diskutiert wurde, führt uns Townfall zurück in ein düsteres, nebelverhangenes Setting. Gleichzeitig bringt Entwickler Screen Burn Interactive einige spannende Neuerungen mit: Ego-Perspektive, Stealth-Elemente, begrenzte Möglichkeiten zur Gegenwehr und den mysteriösen CRTV – einen tragbaren Fernseher, der das ikonische Radio der Silent-Hill-Reihe neu interpretiert.Doch kann sich das Abenteuer von Simon Ordell damit wirklich wie klassisches Silent Hill anfühlen?In Podcast-Folge 132 sprechen wir über:

Cal Newport takes a critical look at recent AI News. Video from today's episode: youtube.com/calnewportmedia (0:00) How Worrisome is GPT-6's “Stealth Thinking”?  (8:58) Reasoning models (15:30) Astra (21:02) The Good (24:48) The Bad (28:28) The Hype Links: Buy Cal's latest book, “Slow Productivity” at www.calnewport.com/slow  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QNsdr-Qx_I https://www.theinformation.com/articles/secret-technique-behind-openais-astra-model-sparks-security-concerns?rc=1ycz3a https://x.com/_NathanCalvin/status/2094957301564092914 https://x.com/sjgadler/status/2094959837691908214?s=61 https://x.com/merettm/status/2095023204993490967?s=20 https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.11473 Thanks to Jesse Miller for production and mastering and Nate Mechler for research and newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

► Access All Tom Torero's Books: ⁠https://beacons.ai/tomtorero⁠

Crypto News: The US Treasury is set to do near $10 billion in bond buybacks which will make crypto and markets pump. On Sept. 15, the Senate holds its cloture vote on the CLARITY Act but republicans say the vote may fail.

What are the BEST bass fishing lures to throw in September? In this episode of Fishing the DMV, we break down the top September bass fishing baits, techniques, and patterns for catching largemouth and smallmouth bass during one of the toughest transition periods of the year.We're LIVE from Jake's Bait & Tackle talking about how to catch bass as summer begins turning into fall across Virginia, Maryland, Washington D.C., and the Mid-Atlantic.September bass fishing can be frustrating. Water temperatures begin dropping, baitfish start moving, bass can become extremely focused on shad, minnows and blueback herring, and patterns that worked all summer can suddenly stop producing.That's why this episode is all about MATCHING THE HATCH and adjusting to the fall transition.We cover some of our favorite September bass fishing lures and techniques, including:• Keitech swimbaits and underspins for schooling bass • 5-inch and 7-inch flukes for blueback herring and shad eaters • Spy baits for long-distance schooling fish • Buzzbaits for shallow fall bass around docks, grass and cover • Frog trailers and downsized buzzbait presentations • Double drop shot rigs for tough September bass • Micro poppers and Torpedo-style topwaters for river smallmouth • Hellgrammite and creature baits for clear-water smallmouth • Weightless swimbaits and flukes over grass and vegetation • BFS finesse presentations for pressured bass • Megabass Karashi-style finesse topwater/jerkbait presentations • Shallow-running crankbaits in the 1–3 foot zone • Megabass Blow-Lee, 6th Sense Curve and other shallow cranks • Compact 1/2-ounce jigs with heavy-duty hooks • ChatterBaits, JackHammers, EVO, EVO HD, Stealth and WillowVibe • ChatterBait trailers including X Zone Swimmer-style and stinger baits • Big swimbaits and glide baits for late September into OctoberWe also talk specifically about the September fishing transition on Lake Anna, where bass can become extremely dialed in on schools of shad, minnows and blueback herring. When those fish are chasing bait, traditional presentations may get ignored while fast-moving minnow imitators produce.For Lake Anna bass fishing, speed can be critical. Burning a fluke, swimbait, spy bait or other baitfish imitation through schooling fish can trigger reaction strikes that slower presentations won't.River anglers aren't forgotten either.For the Shenandoah River, Upper Potomac River and other Mid-Atlantic smallmouth fisheries, we break down why tiny topwaters, micro poppers, hellgrammite-style baits and finesse presentations can be deadly when the water gets low, clear and heavily pressured.We also discuss fishing grass and vegetation on fisheries like the Potomac River and Upper Chesapeake Bay, including one of our favorite alternatives to throwing another frog: fishing a weightless swimbait or fluke across the vegetation and allowing it to fall into openings in the mat.And as September progresses toward October, BIG BAITS start entering the conversation.Glide baits, segmented hard swimbaits and larger soft swimbaits may produce fewer bites—but they can produce some of the biggest bass of the fall.If you're trying to figure out what bass are doing in September, this episode is packed with practical information you can use on the water immediately.Whether you're fishing Lake Anna, the Shenandoah River, Upper Potomac, Potomac River, Rappahannock River, Chesapeake Bay, Susquehanna or another Mid-Atlantic fishery, these September bass fishing techniques can help you adjust as the fish transition from summer into fall.Please support Fishing the DMV on Patreon!!! https://patreon.com/FishingtheDMVPodcast Green Top: https://www.greentop.com/ Jake's bait & Tackle Website: http://www.jakesbaitandtackle.com/ Fishing Pro Tech: https://www.facebook.com/FishingProTech Phone Number: (757) 566-1278 Email: lin@fishingprotech.us Fishing Pro Tech Address: 7812-A Richmond Road, Toano, VA, United States, 23168 Flint Financial Planning: https://www.flintfinancialplanning.com/  FITT Lures: https://bit.ly/4w5lgHt Max4 Fishing: https://max4fishing.com/Support the show

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In this week's episode, I take a look back at the movies and streaming shows I watched in Summer 2026 and rate them. This coupon code will get you 25% off the ebooks in the Ghost Armor series at my Payhip store: FALLARMOR The coupon code is valid through September 21, 2026. So if you need a new ebook this fall, we've got you covered! TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 319 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is September the 4th, 2026, and today I'm looking back at the movies and streaming shows I watched over Summer 2026. We will also have Coupon of the Week and an update on my current writing, publishing, and audiobook projects. So let's start off with Coupon of the Week. This week's coupon code will get you 25% off the ebooks in the Ghost Armor series at my Payhip store. That coupon code is FALLARMOR. As always, you can get the coupon code and the links to my Payhip store available in the show notes for this episode. This coupon code will be valid through September 21st, 2026, so if you need a new ebook for this fall, we have got you covered. Now an update on my current writing, publishing, and audiobook projects. I'm pleased to report that the rough draft of Blade of Visions is done. It came to 99,000 words. It'd be kind of cool if it came to 100,000, but as I've learned in the 15 years I've been doing this, it's not a good idea to pad things for length. Editing is underway. I'm about 15% through the first pass of edits. I'm working on the cover design, so I'm on good track to have the book out before the end of the month. I also wrote a tie-in short story called Winter Crown and don't forget that [newsletter] subscribers will get a free ebook copy of that short story when Blade of Visions comes out later this month. So this makes a very excellent time to subscribe to my new release newsletter. I am also 12,000 words into Elven-Warlock, which will be the seventh book in the Half-Elven Thief series. Hopefully that will be out in October, if all goes well. In audiobook news, I think Blade of Thieves (as narrated by Brad Wills) and Cloak of Worlds (as narrated by Hollis McCarthy) are now finally available at all the usual audiobook stores, which includes Audible, Apple, Amazon, Kobo, Google Play, Chirp, and all the others. So if you want to listen to those if you are going on a Labor Day road trip, you can check those out. A reminder that Stealth and Spells Online: The Complete LitRPG trilogy (narrated by C.J. McAllister) is also available on Audible, so check that out. That's 32 hours long and that would also cover all your Labor Day travels. So that is where I'm at with my current writing, publishing and audiobook projects. 00:02:22 Main Topic of the Week: Summer 2026 Movie Roundup So let's move on to our main topic this week. Our main topic this week is the Summer 2026 Movie Roundup and I always enjoy doing those. These episodes are a little less serious than some of the other episodes and it's fun to talk about things I enjoyed and that you might enjoy as well. And I did see a lot of new movies this summer. In fact, I went to the actual theater four times for Masters of the Universe, The Odyssey, Spider-Man, and Coyote vs. Acme, which is probably more than I've gone in a single season since before COVID times. So as usual, here are the movies I saw this summer (rated from least favorite to most favorite). The grades are totally subjective and based on nothing but my own thoughts and opinions. First up is The Breadwinner, which came out in 2026. This is basically standup comedian Nate Bargatze's act come to life as a movie. If you've seen Bargatze's standup, his usual routine is to portray himself as the dumb husband and bumbling Girl Dad, which is actually quite clever from a comedic standpoint since you're unlikely to have outraged mobs calling for your head if all you're doing is making fun of yourself. Anyway, Bargatze portrays Nate Wilcox, the best Toyota salesman in Nashville. (Don't worry, this is the first of only many product placement moments.) He lets his wife Kate manage the household and do the bulk of the work with their three daughters. When Kate's invention takes off on Shark Tank, she has to go to South Korea for two weeks to oversee manufacturing, leaving Nate in charge of the kids. Comedic chaos ensues. On the positive side of this movie, I did approve how this movie showed a married couple trying to work through a rough patch and do what's right for their kids and each other in a semi-productive way rather than blowing up their lives over nonsensical trivialities in the style of Eat, Pray, Love. On the downside, there was a lot of product placement, to the point where it at times felt like an extended commercial with bits of plot jammed in between product endorsement. No doubt most of the production budget came from product placement money. Will Forte was funny as an eccentric roofing contractor and Martin Herlihy as a shifty DoorDash employee. Kumail Nanjiani was funny as Nate's rival salesman at the car dealership. So overall, I would say this was blandly amusing and inoffensive with some funny slapstick moments. Overall grade: C- Next up is Supergirl, which came out in 2026. This movie really was sort of a strange combination of John Wick and the human trafficking subplot from 2020's Black Widow. The end result wasn't quite as good as Superman from 2025, alas. I did like this movie's interpretation of Supergirl. Kara Zor-El's departure from Krypton was way more traumatic than Superman's, so she's dealing with her unresolved emotional issues by traveling from planet to planet with red suns and getting hammered since the same yellow sun that gives Kryptonians their superpowers on Earth also keeps them from getting drunk because their bodies process alcohol too efficiently. However, Kara comes to a planet where a girl named Ruthye lives. Ruthye's family has been slaughtered by ruthless brigands yet led by Krem of the Yellow Hills and she's going on a quest for revenge. When Ruthye tries to recruit Kara for the quest, she's not interested, but then Krem steals Kara's spaceship and poisons her dog Krypto. Krem carries the antidote on his person, so now Kara and Ruthye team up to get vengeance on Krem and to heal Krypto. Krem is a nasty piece of work and he and his space gang travel from planet to planet abducting women to be their wives. I think the problem was that Krem was kind of a boring but nasty villain, but he was still boring. He was basically a space thug with too many piercings. Lex Luthor from 2025 Superman, by contrast, was a really interesting villain, this malignant narcissist who knows that his obsession with Superman is over the top, but he's going to act on it anyway. Additionally, I don't think this version of Supergirl is quite capable of being a lead character on her own. She'd make a superb secondary character, but I don't think she could quite carry a movie on her own. And Jason Momoa was pretty good as Lobo. Overall grade: C- Next up is Troy, which came out in 2004. I wanted to see this either before or after I watched The Odyssey this summer and ended up watching it the day before I went to see The Odyssey. I would say this movie was slow and ponderous, but I did enjoy watching it. This is an adaption of The Iliad and has the sort of slow stateliness of epic films from the '60s. It had good performances and good battle scenes. Brian Cox was enjoyable as a scenery chewing Agamemnon and Brad Pitt worked as Achilles. Interestingly, his version of Achilles reminded me of the interpretation of Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen from Dune 2 as sort of a violent psychopath with his own twisted sense of honor. Oddly, despite the fact that this was rather a long movie, the ending seems a bit rushed, like we needed to hurry up and get to the Trojan Horse. It was amusing how Achilles' relationship with Patroclus was changed to "cousin" for the modern audience, but Greek views on sexuality would definitely be unpalatable with both right-wing and left-wing versions of the modern mind, which is a good thing because while the Greeks contributed a great deal to the development of civilization, they were into a lot of unsavory stuff. So overall, I would say this was a fun, epic movie, but I think this walked so the 2026 version of The Odyssey could run. Amusing fact: Christopher Nolan was apparently supposed to direct this, but the deal fell through and he got Batman Begins as a consolation prize instead. Overall grade: B- Next up is The Dink, which came out in 2026. This is an Apple TV comedy movie about pickleball of all things. I feel like this was made because some Apple executive got made fun of by some tennis players for playing pickleball and then decided to take revenge through media. Jake Johnson plays Dustin Boyd, a washed up former child tennis star who now works at his father's tennis club. The club has difficulties because of a growing influx of pickleball players who the hardcore tennis players hate. Dustin's father decides to use the club's bylaws to force a duel match to decide the issue, in the grand tradition of wacky comedy stakes. Dustin really wants to play the duel match, but his wrist is injured in an accident. To get his wrist mobility back, the doctor suggested he play some pickleball and Dustin views this as beneath him, but he really wants to play again, so he signs up for pickleball. This ends up being a wacky sports company/buddy movie as Dustin gradually befriends an eccentric older pickleball player. Ed Harris should really do more comedic roles. He was great as Dustin's stern, yet unscrupulous father. I do admire Apple TV's dedication to making random stuff. Overall grade: B- Next up is Green and Gold, which came out in 2025, and this is a melodrama about a farmer and his granddaughter dealing with the grim economic realities of farming. This is set in 1992/1993 era Wisconsin. Buck refuses to modernize his dairy farm in Door County, Wisconsin. His granddaughter Jenny is a talented musician and also a skilled farmer, and Buck wants her to take over the farm one day, but Jenny's ambitions are looking elsewhere. Events come to a head when Jenny realizes that Buck is deeply in debt to the bank, which is about to foreclose on the farm. However, Buck and the chief banker have a personal animosity, so they settle on a bet. If the Green Bay Packers win a Super Bowl title in 1993, the banker will give Buck one more year to turn things around on the farm. Meanwhile, Jenny begins to wonder if her music ambitions might generate the money to save the farm. Of course, if you are familiar with the history of the Packers, you know that they won a Super Bowl in 1996, not 1993. The movie has carried on the back of the very strong performances of its actors. It also has an ambiguously happy ending, as is true with so many things in farming. I like this movie because I've spent a lot of my life in the American Midwest, [and] I did appreciate how it shows the difficulties of the farming life. Also, this is important: a fall from a ladder is a plot point. Ladder safety is important, people! If you are going up a ladder, for heaven's sake don't climb the ladder in high heels like the character in question does. Wear sensible, well-fitting shoes with good soles. A very long time ago, I used to work with a guy who would climb extension ladders in cowboy boots. It is nothing short of the mercy of God that he didn't fall off and shatter half the bones in his body. Overall grade: B Next up is Grumpy Old Men, which came out in 1993. Apparently this is set in Wabasha, Minnesota, which is amusing because filming actually took place in several areas in the Twin Cities in Eastern Minnesota, but not actually in Wabasha. I found that personally amusing because I'm quite familiar with the area and so I recognize several filming locations. Anyway, the movie is about two retirees, Max and John, who are enemies and have been enemies for years, but Max is lonely and wants to get married again, and John is about to lose his house to the IRS due to tax problems. Things come to a head when an attractive literature professor moves across the street and both Max and John take an interest in her and start competing for her affections. However, it turns out that Max and John are actually best friends whose love language happens to be hatred and practical jokes, kind of like Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner, but more on them below. This was a good character comedy/drama. It was interesting that the professor was an early version of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope, albeit several decades before someone came up with the term. This is worth watching both as a character and comedy drama and a time capsule of the 1990s. Sometimes a movie ages a bit badly (Airplane and the Thomas Crown Affair from the Spring Movie Roundup come to mind), but this didn't. The sequel Grumpier Old Men from 1995 is basically the same movie, but with the characters acting about 20% dumber so a sitcom style plot can happen. Still entertaining, but not as good as the first one, so Grumpier Old Men only gets a B-, but Grumpy Old Men gets a B+. Next up is Masters of the Universe, which came out in 2026. It was amusing to read reviews of this movie because people thought way too hard about a movie that is essentially about battling action figures. Anyway, this was pretty good. It was nice to see a movie about a science fiction property that doesn't actually hate the source material. Basically it's a live action version of the cartoons from the '80s, albeit with somewhat more thoughtful moments. I heard someone suggest that it was close in tone to Thor: Ragnarok, and that seems accurate. The plot is that Skeletor conquers Eternia and 10-year-old Prince Adam is sent with the Sword of Power through a magical portal to Earth to keep him and the sword out of Skeletor's reach. However, Adam loses the sword while passing through the gate and 15 years later is working in human resources. He's still seeking for the sword despite his therapist trying to convince him that it was a trauma-induced fantasy. However, his persistence pays off and he does find the sword. Teela, who is one of the resistance leaders against Skeletor's rule, comes to Earth to find him and bring him back, but Skeletor's minions arrive to claim the sword as well. Adam and Teela escape back to Eternia and it's up to Adam to find a way to use the Sword of Power to become the hero that Eternia needs. Dolph Lundgren's cameo was great. Overall, I would say this is a fun movie to watch, especially if you're a Millennial or Gen Xer who saw the cartoons or the live action movie back in the '80s. Jared Leto has something of an increasingly questionable reputation these days, but he did a good job as Skeletor, played him halfway between the solemn gravitas of the 1987 version and the malevolent comedic cornball of the cartoons. Of course, in my opinion, the Frank Langella version from 1987 is the best version of Skeletor since he placed it with all the seriousness of a Shakespearean villain monologue at the Royal Shakespeare Company. In hindsight, it wasn't terribly surprising that this underperformed at the box office. It felt like it was made for guys my age, not for kids. I would've been comfortable bringing an eight-year-old to see The Mandalorian and Grogu or Super Mario Galaxy, but I would've been less certain bringing a kid that age to see Masters of the Universe. Additionally, it seemed very Marvel in tone, and I think the overall mood of the US these days is less "Marvel Cinematic Universe quips and banter" and more sort of the grimness of The Odyssey, which we'll talk about shortly. Overall grade: B+ Next up is Young Washington, which came out in 2026, a biopic of the early life of George Washington, covering how he more or less accidentally started the French and Indian War and how he recovered his reputation at the Battle of Braddock's Field. To be fair, the international situation at the time meant that someone was going to start the French and Indian War. It just happened to be Washington, who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Overall, I liked this. It was reasonably historically accurate, though some of the emotional and family dialogue at times was a bit clunky. Additionally, Washington was portrayed as having revolutionary leanings much earlier in life than he actually did, since when he was a young man, he had no thoughts of being anything but a British subject and officer. That said, some of the most implausible stuff in the movie actually happened in real life. Like if I were to write in a novel that the future president of the United States personally rallied the army's rear guard to save as many men as possible from an ambush, and in the process had two horses shot out from under him and ended up with bullet holes in his hat and coat (all while fighting continuously), you would probably find that a bit implausible, but it actually happened that way. Washington's daring actions during that battle were one of the reasons he was appointed commander of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, that and there weren't many other colonials with as much experience of military command as Washington. In that vein, the battle scenes were the best part of the movie. They captured the brutality and messiness of 18th Century warfare without being especially graphic. Anyway, I'm glad this is getting a sequel. Maybe we'll end up with a Young Washington Cinematic Universe. Overall grade: B+ Next up is Meet the Parents, which came out in 2000, and this is probably one of the apex forms of cringe comedy. Ben Stiller plays Greg Focker, a nurse who's in love with schoolteacher Pam Burns. Greg wants to marry Pam, but overhears a phone call with her sister where she says her fiancé asked permission of her traditional father first. Greg decides that he's going to ask Pam's father's permission first to get off on the right foot, and so accompanies Pam to her sister's wedding and her parents' house to, as the title says, Meet the Parents. However, Pam's father is the former CIA counterintelligence officer Jack, and he and Greg immediately get on each other's nerves. To make things worse, the airline has lost Greg's luggage. From these two starting premises follow a cascading series of hilarious disasters that accumulate in a septic tank fire on the lawn. I'm not sure, but I think I saw this one in the theaters when it came out in 2000, and I thought it was funny then. With 26 years of additional life experience under the belt, I still think it's pretty funny, though you could still tell that this movie was filmed before 9/11 because if Greg had his airport meltdown seen today, the consequences would've been much worse. Overall grade: B+ Next up is O Brother Where Art Thou, which came out in 2000. This is a very, very, very specific adaptation of The Odyssey directed by the Coen brothers. George Clooney plays Everett, a convict who escapes from a chain gang in Mississippi during the Great Depression. He wants to find a treasure and he recruits fellow convicts Delmar and Peter to assist him. Along the way, Everett and his team encountered 1930s era versions of the Sirens, the cyclops, the blind prophet Tiresias, and other characters and foes from the original Odyssey myth. Everett and his friends end up running a scam where they pretend to be a Christian music group, but as it turns out, they're actually pretty good at singing, so this leads to unexpected hilarity and opportunities. This was also a very funny movie. Imagine The Odyssey is a comedy with a lot of singing set in the Deep South during the Depression, and you're there. If you're a fan of bluegrass music, this is worth watching. If you've seen Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, it's worth watching this just to ponder how the same source material can produce such wildly divergent interpretations. If you don't care about The Odyssey, then this is still a fun movie to watch. Proof: I mentioned to someone that I had seen this and she responded that she both loved the movie and was surprised to learn that he had in fact been inspired by The Odyssey. Overall grade: A- Next up is Hoppers, which came out in 2026. Like most Pixar movies, this was very high concept. Unlike many recent Pixar movies, it wasn't too depressing and didn't disappear up its own tailpipe. In the city of Beaverton, hot tempered girl Mabel bonds with her grandmother in their favorite place, a woodland grove favored by beavers. Years later, Mabel is a biology student under Dr. Fairfax, but is neglecting her studies to face off against her nemesis, the popular yet sketchy Mayor Jerry of Beaverton. Mayor Jerry wants to build an expressway that will wipe out the woodland grove, and he's perfectly within his rights to do it since no animals have been found living there. Since Mabel's grandmother has died, she's unwilling to give up the grove. However, Dr. Fairfax's research might give her a way. Dr. Fairfax has worked out a way to temporarily transfer human consciousness to a robotic beaver capable of speaking to real beavers, much like the plot of Avatar. In a funny scene, Fairfax angrily denies that it's just like Avatar. Mabel gets the idea to use this to convince real beavers to settle in the grove, thereby thwarting Mayor Jerry's plans. This touches off both a wacky yet poignant adventure. The plot was very well structured and it followed the proper rules of story structure, which I've talked about before. Mabel definitely is a protagonist who takes action, but experiences setbacks and problems of her own creation. It was pretty good. I say it was a return to form for Pixar after some of their weaker movies in the 2020s. Overall grade: A Now it's time for my three favorite movies of summer 2026, all of which I actually saw in the theater. First up is Coyote versus Acme, which came out in 2026. This movie had an extra surge of popularity from the fact that Warner Brothers canceled it as a tax write-off, but distributor Ketchup Entertainment revived it. That makes it a plucky underdog since Warner Brothers senior executives are kind of like the apex version of soulless corporate bug men. Like if I wrote characters in my books who acted like Warner Brothers senior executives, people would think I was being didactic and heavy-handed. Anyway, after decades of failures in efforts to capture the Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote decides to sue Acme Corporation for its numerous defective products. Coyote teams up with a lazy strip mall lawyer named Kevin Avery, who specializes in getting small settlements from Acme. However, Avery and Coyote end up filing a massive lawsuit against Acme, which means they'll face the full wrath of Acme Corporation, including its ace lawyer Buddy Crane and its ruthless CEO, Foghorn Leghorn. What follows is a comedic courtroom battle as Coyote and Avery try to defeat Acme Corporation, defeat its sinister plans, and Coyote starts to realize that Road Runner might actually be his best friend. Both quite amusing and touching, and I'm glad this was rescued from the tax write-off vault. Overall grade: A Next up is The Odyssey, which came out in 2026. This wasn't quite as good as Oppenheimer in 2023 in my opinion, but it was still very good and very much worth seeing. It was weird that The Odyssey was briefly a football in the never-ending US culture war scrum because the movie isn't really political and doesn't really have a message beyond "war is destructive and bad", which every sensible person would agree with, and a lesser message of "violating the law of morality has unforeseen cascading bad consequences, including the destruction of civilization", which is also quite true and was one of the themes of Oppenheimer. Nolan himself dismissed the controversies as "irrelevant" and "part of the territory" since no one had actually seen the movie yet, and given that The Odyssey has made a billion and a half dollars as of this recording, I think that may have proved his point. I imagine the scrutiny from Batman fans back in the 2010s was way more intense since in the modern era, many people care more deeply about the accuracy of Batman than The Odyssey. I do think the debate over the historical accuracy in The Odyssey is pointless because the Odyssey is myth, not history. The Iliad and The Odyssey are a lot like Arthurian myth in terms of their actual historicity. Even when Arthurian legend was massively popular with English kings and nobles in the late medieval and early modern period (for example, Henry VIII's older brother was named Arthur in imitation of King Arthur), the version of Arthurian myth they celebrated and wished to emulate had virtually no connection to the reality of Britain in the 500s AD and was instead a sort of fantasy version of their own time in the 14th and 15th centuries. By the time The Odyssey was written down, no doubt a similar process was underway. Both The Iliad and The Odyssey and the Arthurian cycle probably have a kernel of historical truth buried underneath the tales of magic swords, sirens, cyclopses, and vengeful witches with magic islands. There likely was a Romano-British warlord who might have been named Arthur (or possibly Ambrosius Aurelianus) who held off the Saxons for a while before he was overwhelmed and killed. Likewise, Heinrich Schliemann was a highly eccentric and very sketchy crazy rich guy, but he did prove that there really was some version of the city of Troy that was destroyed at the end of the Bronze Age. But everything beyond those basic details came from thousands of years of embellishments and flourishes from later poets and writers. So arguing about the historical accuracy of The Odyssey is a bit like arguing if Star Wars portrays faster than light travel in an accurate way. That kind of argument is just missing the point entirely. It's also interesting to see how modern standards clashed with the ancient mindset. You know how I always say that everywhere in the United States is exactly the same right until it really, really isn't? I think ancient people are just like us until they really, really weren't. Like ancient people would have been superstitious to an extent that even the most credulous crystal and aura influencer on TikTok would find horrifying and frequently violent in a way that the most strident self-defense advocate would find shocking. The Odyssey's version of Odysseus feels guilt and remorse over his actions in a way an actual ancient Greek probably wouldn't have, but so what? This is The Odyssey viewed through the lens of the 21st century, just as those English nobles viewed the myth of King Arthur and his knights through the lens of their time. As I mentioned with Troy above, the ancient Greeks were often quite brutal and would celebrate sacking an enemy city. One side note before we get to the movie, I probably found it funnier than I should have how Nolan favorably cited classicist Emily Wilson's translation of The Odyssey as a source, and Wilson then had an extended and unintentionally comedic multi-article crashout about how much she hated the movie and of course how much she hated the commemorative Trojan Horse popcorn bucket. Apparently Wilson hated the movie so much she's going to do a new translation of The Odyssey, much to her publisher's baffled dismay. No one does offended huffy petulance quite like an academic. Anyway, back to the movie. It follows the familiar story of Odysseus through Christopher Nolan's preference for non-linear storytelling and practical effects. I did think it was interesting how in this interpretation, Odysseus explicitly connected the ruse of the Trojan Horse with the collapse of the Bronze Age and the rise of the Sea Peoples. It's also probably the most supernatural film Nolan has ever done with actual fantasy and supernatural elements as opposed to science fiction like Inception, Tenant, and Interstellar. Odysseus talks to Athena throughout the movie and it's left up to the viewer's interpretation whether or not he's actually talking to Athena or his own guilt-ridden hallucinations. That said, Odysseus encounters a witch with actual magic powers and travels to the underworld to speak with the shades of the dead, so it's entirely possible he's talking to the actual Athena. In this version, as I mentioned, Odysseus is guilt-ridden over the ruse of the Trojan Horse, which is shown as a violation of the sacred hospitality of Zeus's law and as great a crime as the creation of the atomic bomb in Oppenheimer, which of course is similar to Oppenheimer, where Oppenheimer's creation of the atomic bomb is treated similarly. There are also some genuinely scary sequences in the movie. The bit with the underworld is very spooky, the cyclops is actually quite frightening, and the character of Circe reaches the level of scary previously attained by Heath Ledger's version of The Joker in The Dark Knight. If Nolan ever decides he wants to do a horror movie, it will probably be one of the scariest ones ever made. To sum up, The Odyssey has great performances, great spectacle, great cinematography, and great action sequences. As an interesting interpretation of the original myth, definitely worth seeing. I think you can tell it was a great movie because of all the arguments on the Internet about "what does it really mean?" Great art often has that effect. Overall grade: A The final of my three favorite movies of [Summer] 2026 is Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which came out in 2026. There's a rumor, and I don't know if it's true or not, that Tom Holland found the experience of working with Christopher Nolan on The Odyssey so eye-opening that he insisted that if they made another Spider-Man movie, it had to have a reason for existing other than "make a lot of money". If this story is true, it clearly worked. Previously, I though the two best Spider-Man movies were Spider-Man 2 from 2004 and Spider-Man: No Way Home from 2021. I must now amend that opinion to say that there are three best Spider-Man movies and Spider-Man: Brand New Day is one of the three. It is pretty good. I would've trimmed it here and there, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and is an excellent Spider-Man story that totally captures the essence of the character within a good story. It takes place four years after the events of No Way Home erased everyone's memory that Peter Parker was Spider-Man. Peter has now been crime fighting full time, but it is taking a severe toll on his emotions and personal life that he's deliberately ignoring. Meanwhile, Spider-Man has become the beloved crime fighter of New York, trusted by both the NYPD and the Federal Department of Damage Control, which is a reoccurring frenemy for superheroes from other movies. When someone launches an attack on the headquarters of Damage Control, the director recruits Peter to fight their new enemy, a mysterious figure who uses telepathy to possess people from a distance. Peter is the only one who can sense it thanks to his spider sense, and he's also the only one able to resist the telepath's possession abilities. But despite his resistance to possession, fighting a telepath is a dangerous proposition for someone with as many emotional issues as Peter, and things start to spiral out of control when the telepath starts digging into his life. But there's another lesson Peter has to learn. People (and especially superheroes) who take the federal government at its word tend to regret it. For that matter, ignoring his emotional issues is causing Peter's spider powers to start acting in strange ways. But of course, at the end of the day, Spider-Man always follows his conscience, no matter how high the cost to him personally. Definitely an enjoyable movie. All the scenes with Spider-Man and Punisher were great, and the two of them had a great dynamic together. A few other Marvel Cinematic Universe people show up, but this is probably one of the most standalone movies the MCU has done in a while. Of course, the risk of MCU Continuity Lockout is always there (which is one of the reasons I started writing Half-Eleven Thief in 2023). Overall grade: A So I would say it was a pretty good summer for movies. It's also valuable lessons in not taking the Internet too seriously, which too many people do nowadays. There are all these dedicated analyses on X, Threads, and Reddit in June and May explaining why The Odyssey was going to fail for whatever reason, and instead it made $1.5 billion. So I think that's a good lesson in not taking everything you read on the internet a little too seriously. So that's it for this week. Thanks for listening to The Pulp Writer Show. I hope you found the show enjoyable. A reminder that you can listen to all the back episodes at https://thepulpwritershow.com. If you enjoyed the podcast, please leave a review on your podcasting platform of choice. Stay safe and stay healthy, and we'll see you all next week.  

The Power of Collaboration and Threat Sharing in Healthcare Cybersecurity On this episode host Jessica Davis invites Errol Weiss, Chief Security Officer, Health-ISAC to discuss how collective defense, threat intelligence sharing, and cross-industry collaboration make a real impact on healthcare cyber resilience despite longstanding sector challenges. To stream our Station live 24/7 visit www.HealthcareNOWRadio.com or ask your Smart Device to “….Play Healthcare NOW Radio”.

Halloween The Game , le test par Yohann Lemore► Sortie : 08/09/2026► Plateformes : PS5, Series, PC► Développeur : IllFonic► Éditeur : IllFonic Publishing, Gun Interactive► Genre : Survival horror, Stealth► Âge : 18Crédits audio :Haddonfield Horror by Karl Casey @White Bat AudioEvil Behind the Mask by Karl Casey @White Bat AudioThe Shape by Karl Casey @White Bat Audio►https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3qw75pjYiQ&list=RD_3qw75pjYiQ&start_radio=1

(00:00:00) - Intro (00:03:54) - Rajat's heroes and influences (00:05:21) - Introducing Chef Robotics (00:07:22) - Why food manufacturing is a massive opportunity (00:08:11) - Industry graveyard: why previous food robots failed (00:13:24) - Manufacturing over restaurants as go-to-market (00:14:50) - Current customers and what the robots make (00:16:07) - High-mix vs low-mix manufacturing (00:18:52) - Labor shortage and the reality of the job (00:20:55) - The research phase before starting Chef (00:24:24) - Building the early team (00:27:05) - The complexity of food manipulation (00:28:48) - Stealth mode and lack of competitors (00:31:15) - Ghost kitchens around the world (00:33:33) - Long-term vision and expansion strategy (00:37:23) - Where value accrues: hardware vs software vs models (00:43:03) - Impact on consumers: cheaper and safer food (00:46:50) - The future of home cooking (00:51:21) - Specialized robots vs humanoids (00:54:55) - Urgency as founder job number one (01:04:51) - Where to follow and get involved Links:   Eric Jorgenson     LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/erjorgenson     Twitter / X — https://x.com/EricJorgenson     Website — https://www.ejorgenson.com/ Rajat on X - https://x.com/RajatBhageria Rajat on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajatbhageria/ Chef Robotics - https://www.chefrobotics.ai/ To support the costs of producing this podcast:  >> Buy a copy of the Navalmanack: www.navalmanack.com/  >> Buy a copy of The Anthology of Balaji: https://balajianthology.com/ >> Buy a copy of The Book of Elon: https://www.elonmuskbook.org/  >> Sign up for my online course and community about building your Personal Leverage: https://www.ejorgenson.com/leverage  >> Invest in early-stage companies alongside Eric and his partners at Rolling Fun: https://angel.co/v/back/rolling-fun >> Join the free weekly email list at ejorgenson.com/newsletter >> Text the podcast to a friend >> Or at least give the podcast a positive review to help us reach new listeners! Important Quotes from the podcast on Business and Entrepreneurship   There is no skill called “business.” Avoid business magazines and business classes. - Naval Ravikant   You have to work up to the point where you can own equity in a business. You could own equity as a small shareholder where you bought stock. You could also own it as an owner where you started the company. Ownership is really important.     Everybody who really makes money at some point owns a piece of a product, a business, or some IP. That can be through stock options if you work at a tech company. That's a fine way to start. 

Dakotah is joined by Yohan for Part 2 of our How to Win with XV26 Stealth Battlesuits series. After meeting Yohan while TOing in Wales, Dakotah brings him on to break down his very different approach to playing XV26 in competitive Kill Team. Unlike the more cagey, denial-focused style from Part 1, Yohan explains how he plays Stealth Battlesuits aggressively by pushing up the board, controlling threat ranges, forcing bad activations, and using the team's durability, mobility, and tricks to create pressure. They discuss the Neutralizer, fusion blaster placement, the Liberator, EMP grenade plays, drones, mines, equipment choices, Patient Hunters, Prepare Ambush, Hollow Wave Countermeasures, Vectored Retro Thrusters, Savior Protocols, Steel Intelligence, and how the recent buffs may affect the team going forward. The episode also covers beginner tips, common mistakes, how narrative play can improve tournament skill, and how XV26 handles key matchups like Goremongers, Wolf Scouts, Canoptek Circle, Chaos Cults, Brood Brothers, Mandrakes, and more. If you play XV26 Stealth Battlesuits, are thinking about picking them up, or just want to understand why this team may be stronger than people think, this episode is for you.

A little campfire session with the one and only Uncle Lou aka Mr Stealth Strip!

In this week's packed show we talk about what went wrong with the Vietnam Airlines overrun at Munich, we look back at lessons learned on the anniversary of the Manchester British Airtours tragedy, another laptop fire, and a BA story for Nev.    In the military news, we look back at a Stealth jet that never was, and a curious new aircraft from Saab.   We have the final week of Nik's book competition, as well as everyone's favourite, the Retro Airline Ad of the week.     You can get in touch with us all at : WhatsApp +447446975214 Email podcast@planetalkinguk.com or comment in our chatroom on YouTube.

Let's get sneaky! Show Notes: Run Time: 1:56:47 We thought knew a lot about this story going into it, but clearly not as much as we thought! Listen as we discover what we don't know, fill in the gaps, and come up with a story that we're quite proud of by the end.  We've got a lot of cool episodes coming up, so be sure to get your questions in early and often! Send them here!  And, as always, keep on saving the Multiverse!

Send us Fan MailWe discuss the design philosophy and mechanics of Payday: Aces High in a special interview with Fast Travel Games' Erik Odeldahl. We dive into what didn't make the cut from the flatscreen games, translating heist roles and stealth into VR, and how much content players can expect at launch.Here's the full topic list, in order:The Design Philosophy1. What didn't make the cut from the flatscreen games2. Creating world interactions based on player expectations3. Making the heists replayableGameplay Mechanics4. Using specialized tools5. Falling into natural roles during heists6. Stealth gameplay7. Accommodating solo players with botsContent & Inspirations8. How much content to expect at launch9. Doing real world research10. Developing character archetypes through progression11. Erik's personal gaming

A mysterious new AI model called Ox Alpha has driven certain corners of the internet into a frenzy of speculation. Also, most published authors have, without their knowledge or consent, contributed to the development of the same AI tools that threaten to undermine their livelihoods. That seems illegal, right? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

“Rama showed His tremendous knowledge of fighting by killing the demon Tataka. The muni then gave to Him knowledge of secret mantras to be used in fighting.” (Janaki Mangala, 36)

Xantheus and Ophelia continue their charade as they delve deeper into Diadem operations while the rest of the party search for more clues! Can't wait for Part 2 of each episode? Join our Patreon to get early access EVERY week (+ a few other bonuses)! www.patreon.com/HighRollers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ _______________ Boost your Charisma with some HR merch! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://highrollersdnd.teemill.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Add official High Rollers Minis to your TTRPG collection here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://only-games.co/collections/high-rollers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Bless your table with the Clever Toad Dice Set: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://dispeldice.com/collections/high-rollers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Enhance your bath time experience with the official Altheya themed DiceBombs at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://geekyclean.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! Check out ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.highrollersdnd.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for all the latest HR News! Love the podcast? Give us a glittering 5 star review! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/high-rollers-dnd/id1401508198?see-all=reviews⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound, TCT Adventures (Solasta: Crown of the Magisters), Monument Studios and Jolene Khor! Check out Jolene Khor and all her wonderful work on High Rollers on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/artist/1WX3ICiTmf4GpHwImnQMs6⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠v Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

War Room Dollar In Peril? Long-Term Treasury Yields Surge, Bond Market Flashes Warning, As US Debt Crosses $40 Trillion Threshold… PLUS, U.S. Military Establishes Stealth Corridor Through Hormuz

Leigh's pick takes us deep into the wonderfully unhinged world of 1980s Taiwanese ninja cinema with Ninja Condors, also known as Ninjas, Condors 13. Directed by Wu Kuo-Ren, credited on some releases as James Wu, the film was written by prolific exploitation filmmaker Godfrey Ho and produced by Chin Chang-Liang and Tomas Tang. Alexander Lo Rei leads a cast that also includes Eugene Thomas, George Nicholas, Jack Long, Li Hai-Hsing and Five Venoms veteran Lu Feng. No reliable published production budget appears to have survived, which somehow feels entirely appropriate for a film this gloriously rough around the edges.Released in 1987 as the Taiwanese ninja boom was beginning to wind down, Ninja Condors has endured as exactly the sort of cult VHS discovery we love: cheap, frantic, dubbed, frequently ridiculous and absolutely committed to delivering martial-arts action. Contemporary cult reviews have since embraced its relentless energy, inventive fights and general refusal to let narrative logic get in the way of another ninja appearing from somewhere. It may not have troubled the major awards ceremonies, but nearly forty years later people are still talking about it — which is probably a greater achievement anyway.TRAILER GUY PLOT SYNOPSISBrian watched his father die in front of him as a child. Years later, he has become White Eagle — a deadly ninja working for a criminal organisation ruled by a man with the reassuringly subtle name of... Lucifer.But when Brian's loyalty is pushed too far, the White Eagle decides he's had enough. Now the organisation that trained him is about to discover the unfortunate consequences of employing an elite assassin who suddenly develops a conscience.There will be revenge. There will be ninjas. There will be weapons, gunfire and several moments where asking sensible questions is strongly discouraged. This is NINJA CONDORS.FUN FACTSThe film is also known as Ninjas, Condors 13 and Knight Revenger, because apparently one title containing both ninjas and condors still wasn't enough.Alexander Lo Rei was something of a veteran of the Taiwanese ninja craze, with credits including The Super Ninja, Ninja Hunter, Ninja Kids, Secret of Ninja and Ninja in USA.Li Hai-Hsing didn't just appear in the film — he also handled its action choreography.The cinematography is credited to Quincy Szeto, while the music was composed by Sherman Chow.Martial-arts favourite Jack Long, known for films including The 7 Grandmasters and The Mystery of Chess Boxing, appears as Brian's ninja master.Lu Feng, one of the famous Venom Mob performers from The Five Venoms, makes an appearance early in the film.Brian's ninja identity, White Eagle, comes with the appropriate costume choice: he fights dressed predominantly in white rather than traditional black. Stealth clearly wasn't in the brief.Among the film's more imaginative action locations are a swimming pool, amusement park, shipping yard and ice rink. Ninjas on ice really is a thing.Eagle-eyed viewers may notice Alexander Lo Rei's hairstyle changing noticeably between scenes, suggesting either filming took place over an extended period or ninja hair grows quickly.SUPPORT THE SHOW If you enjoy the show and would like to support us, we have a Patreon ⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠. If you're listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, leaving us a 5-star review (and a short comment) really helps more people discover the show. It's quick, free, and makes a huge difference. Referral links also help out the show if you were going to sign up:⁠⁠⁠NordVPN⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠NordPass⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thevhsstrikesback@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/vhsstrikesback⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Josh Lucas, Jessica Biel, and Jamie Foxx star in the 2005 action flick Stealth about an AI-powered fighter jet that gets struck by lightning and goes rogue. The hilarious Charlie Sanders (Key & Peele) joins Paul and Jason to cover everything from Jamie Foxx's untimely demise to the sentient robot plane's emo music playlist. Plus, for the first time ever we hear Kid Second Opinion Reviews! (Ep. #144 Originally Released 11/21/2021) • Go to hdtgm.com for tour dates, merch, FAQs, and more• Leave us a voicemail at speakpipe.com/hdtgm• Submit your Last Looks theme song here• Join our Discord at discord.gg/hdtgm• Buy merch at howdidthisgetmade.dashery.com/• Order Paul's book about his childhood: Joyful Recollections of Trauma• Shop our new hat collection at podswag.com• Paul's Discord: discord.gg/paulscheer• Paul's YouTube page: youtube.com/paulscheer• Follow Paul on Letterboxd: letterboxd.com/paulscheer• Subscribe The Dark Web w/ Paul & Rob Huebel: youtube.com/@enterthedarkweb• Listen to Unspooled with Paul & Amy Nicholson: unspooledpodcast.com• Listen to The Deep Dive with June & Jessica St. Clair: thedeepdiveacademy.com/podcast• Instagram: @hdtgm, @paulscheer, & @junediane• Twitter: @hdtgm, @paulscheer• Jason is not on social media• Episode transcripts available at how-did-this-get-made.simplecast.com/episodesGet access to all the podcasts you love, music channels and radio shows with the SiriusXM App! Get 3 months free using the link: siriusxm.com/hdtgm Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

High Rollers face off against many of their greatest foes at once. Stealth, Deception, Remembering Inventory, Fake Names and, worst of all, Corridors. Can't wait for Part 2 of each episode? Join our Patreon to get early access EVERY week (+ a few other bonuses)! www.patreon.com/HighRollers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ _______________ Boost your Charisma with some HR merch! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://highrollersdnd.teemill.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Add official High Rollers Minis to your TTRPG collection here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://only-games.co/collections/high-rollers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Bless your table with the Clever Toad Dice Set: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://dispeldice.com/collections/high-rollers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Enhance your bath time experience with the official Altheya themed DiceBombs at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://geekyclean.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! Check out ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.highrollersdnd.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for all the latest HR News! Love the podcast? Give us a glittering 5 star review! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/high-rollers-dnd/id1401508198?see-all=reviews⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound, TCT Adventures (Solasta: Crown of the Magisters), Monument Studios and Jolene Khor! Check out Jolene Khor and all her wonderful work on High Rollers on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/artist/1WX3ICiTmf4GpHwImnQMs6⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠v Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this week's episode, we take a look at some of the common scams targeting indie authors and offer tips on how to detect and avoid them. This coupon code will get you 50% off the audiobook of Ghost in the Blood, Book #3 in The Ghosts series, (as excellently narrated by Hollis McCarthy) at my Payhip store: CAINASUMMER The coupon code is valid through August 31, 2026. So if you need a new audiobook this summer, we've got you covered! TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 316 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is August the 14th, 2026, and today we are discussing common scams targeting indie writers. We also have a Coupon of the Week and a update on my current writing, publishing, and audiobook projects. So let's start off with Coupon of the Week. This week's coupon code will get you 50% off the audiobook of Ghost in the Blood, Book #3 in The Ghosts series (as excellently narrated by Hollis McCarthy) at my Payhip store. That code is CAINASUMMER. As always, the coupon code and the links to my Payhip store will be available in the show notes for this episode. This coupon code will be valid through August the 31st, 2026, so if you need a new audiobook for this summer, we have got you covered. Now let's head on to a progress update. As I mentioned last week, Cloak of Frost is done and it's published and you get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play, Apple Books, Smashwords, and my own Payhip Store. It is doing quite well. Thank you all for that, and people seem to be enjoying it. So if you haven't checked out Cloak of Frost yet, you can get it at your favorite ebook store. Now that Cloak of Frost is done, my next main project is Blade of Visions, which will be the sixth book in the Blades of Ruin epic fantasy series. I am 28,000 words into that. I think the rough draft will be about 100,000 words, but we will see. Might be a little more, a little less. I'm hoping to wrap it up early in September so that the book can be out to you sometime in the second half of September, if all goes well. In other news, my secondary project now is Elven-Warlock, the seventh Rivah book, and I am 1,500 words into that. If all goes well, I hope to have that out in October. In audiobook news, we have three things coming your way. The first one is Blade of Thieves, which Brad Wills is currently narrating and should be wrapped up before too much longer. Hollis McCarthy is narrating Cloak of Worlds, and I believe we'll be able to start proof listening to that soon, so that should be available before too much longer. I just finished uploading Stealth and Spells Online: The Complete LitRPG trilogy in audiobook form. So, the entire trilogy in one audiobook comes to about 32 hours long. So hopefully that will get through ACX processing before too much longer, and then you can listen to it. So that is where I'm at with current writing and publishing and audiobook projects. 00:02:22 Main Topic: Common Scams for Writers Now let's move on to our main topic, common scams to avoid for writers. Authors, especially new ones, but to be honest, all of us are hungry for praise, recognition, and professional opportunities. They also have a hunger to be the big new publishing phenomenon, ideally as fast as possible. Unfortunately, scammers are very aware of this and use it to prey upon authors. An example I use for this is if you've read the Heir to the Empire books by Timothy Zahn, the villain, Grand Admiral Thrawn, makes a habit of studying his opponent's artwork to discover their psychological blind spots. Then he tailors his strategies around those psychological blind spots. Now, the reason I mentioned this is that scamming or falling victim to a scam is not necessarily an indication of base intelligence or savviness. Everyone has their psychological weak spots. If a scam hits your psychological weak spot at the right time when you're in the right state of mind when you're tired or sick or have had some additional bad news recently, that might hit. For myself, the scams I've nearly fallen victim to have been ones based around bad news because I'm essentially a very pessimistic personality, so I always kind of half expect bad news. One example was I got a fake email allegedly from Spotify saying that my tax information was wrong for my Spotify audiobooks and that needed to be fixed immediately. This was one I could have fallen for because it arrived during tax time. As we know, tax time is often very onerous and unpleasant and involves a lot of work and digging through papers. So I was inclined to believe it, but still, fortunately, I didn't click on any links in the emails. I went directly to the portal, double checked, and then realized it was a scam. Another example was that recently I got a phone call purporting to be from my local police department. I was thinking, "Oh man, this is going to be a mess." I was listening to it and then thankfully before I gave out any information, I realized that it was in fact a scam and then hung up. Just to be thorough, I called the actual local police department and double checked that it was a scam. But again, that played out my psychological weak point of being a pessimist and expecting bad news. I mention this because if you're aware of your psychological weak spots, like many writers, as we mentioned, are hungry for praise or quick opportunities, then you're more likely to be aware of scams. The other thing I should mention in sort of the introduction here is that thanks to the rise of ChatGPT and Gemini and Claude and all the other LLM slop machines, it's become a lot easier to scam people than it used to be before. I heard it said that Web 1.0 was a static content. Web 2.0 was interactive content like social media. Web 3.0 is scams in the forms of NFTs, cryptos, and LLMs. For example, as I mentioned, I just recently published Cloak of Frost. Since I published Cloak of Frost, I've gotten like 20 scam emails that for the most part read like this: "Dear Jonathan, I'm Stephanie Davis and the thing that caught my attention about Cloak of Frost was how quickly an obligation Nadia would rather avoid turns into a situation where the fate of earth is suddenly on the line. She's supposed to be attending the Winter Frost Games. Then an old friend arrives being chased by clone soldiers with a mysterious magical artifact and suddenly this isn't just another duty for the Marshall of the High Queen of the Elves. The fact that losing the game can mean earth burns gives the whole premise a wonderfully sharp sense of consequence. I partner with Around the World in 80 books, a vibrant community of readers who enjoy discovering books from different authors." It goes on and on in this vein. Since Cloak Frost came out six days ago, I've gotten 20 different emails along those lines, all of them clearly generated by LLMs. In fact, I didn't have to save that email. I just opened up my inbox, picked the most recent one, and that was it. Of course, if I responded, what would've happened would've been a few more emails and eventually they would ask for payment for attending their book festival and I would provide payment and then they would promptly disappear off the face of the earth and go on to target someone else. So you can see how that kind of scam would be dangerous. Imagine you're a brand new author who's just published your first book and doesn't know all that much about ChatGPT and the other LLM slop generators out there and you get an email like that, you'd think you'd won the lottery and you'd be very susceptible to giving payment to the scammer. So today, that's why we're going to go over a few of the more common scams out there and provide some general tips for spotting a scam. #1: Publishing Packages You will frequently be contacted by scamming companies offering to help you publish, market, and work on social media for your book. Some of them will even have official sounding names like Amazon Author Hub or Amazon Book Publisher, which are using the Amazon name but not affiliated with Amazon. It's very, very important to be skeptical of these types of publishing companies in general. At best, most of these publishing services companies greatly overcharge for basic services. At worst, they're outright thieves and scammers. David Gaughran has written about these types of publishers if you're interested in learning more. Writer's Weekly's website keeps a running list of confirmed scam publishers and publishing services, but even if they're not on a list and you find reviews that seem to be good, it's best to be extremely skeptical. It's very easy to accumulate fake Google reviews. For example, without naming names, a local business that I used to frequent recently changed owners a couple months ago. And before that, the local business had two five-star reviews. Since the new owner came in, suddenly there's like 500 five-star reviews popping up, all of them having a variety of names that do not seem like they come from the geographic region in which I live. So what he probably did was use a ChatGPT type service to automatically write a bunch of fake reviews for his business. A lot of these scammy companies can do that as well, so it's best to be very skeptical about this kind of thing. #2 Fake conference/book festival/book club speaking invitation This scam is incredibly common, but comes in a variety of types. You will be contacted by a book club/conference/book festival coordinator saying that they love, love, love your book and offer some praise or comments about it and then invite you to their event. The scam part will also come in after you accept when they will want money for this privilege. It's bad to work for free, but it's also very foolish to pay money to show up for a professional event, especially one located outside your immediate area. The email I read earlier in the show is a good example of one of these. You notice the danger of these comes in because they're using ChatGPT for these. ChatGPT can ingest your book or the book description and then spit out some seemingly plausible praise that makes it seem like the scammer has read your book, but they actually haven't. So I'd be very, very, very wary of any unsolicited conference or book festival invitations, especially ones that are fulsome in their praise for your book. #3: Fake or scammy beta readers/editors/agents Many people will cold email you asking to be hired. They might cite actual typos they can fix in your book, specific connections they can make for you, and praise your book as the next big thing. In reality, reputable and established people in these positions usually have long wait lists for their services. They're not wandering the Internet for just-established authors to add to their client lists. It's far more effective to find reputable and established people in these areas and contact them yourself instead of taking up offers from whoever randomly emails you. One thing I've found both as a writer and as a homeowner is that really good contractors don't need to cold call people to look for business. Really good contractors are so busy that you have to call them and try and get on their schedule. The same thing can be said of beta readers, editors, and agents. #4: Impersonation of famous authors John Grisham, Brandon Sanderson, and your favorite romance writers are not actually randomly emailing random minor authors, telling them that their book shows real promise and might be the next big thing. Don't let praise from a famous name take down your guard. Anyone can pretend to be anyone on the internet and is increasingly easy for pretending to look very real. For example, earlier this year I received an email from British author Hilary Mantel praising one of my books. This is especially remarkable because I got the email, I believe in March of 2026, and Hilary Mantel died in 2022. So while my ego would like to believe that my book was so good that Hillary Mantel returned from death to praise it, I think it is more likely instead that a scammer was impersonating Hilary Mantel using a Gmail account. There have been frequent examples of this over the past year or so as ChatGPT and LLM usage becomes more widespread. People will occasionally receive emails purporting to be from Brandon Sanderson offering to work together on a project. However, if you watch Brandon Sanderson's social media, you'll know that he is busy writing the screenplay for the Mistborn movie from Apple. I think it is safe to say he probably does not have time to email random strangers on the Internet asking to work on their books. So if you get an email from a big name author purporting [to say] that they love [your] book and want to work on it with you, it is almost 100% certain that it is a scam. Since scams are constantly evolving and mutating and developing new forms, I'm going to focus the rest of the episode on some general principles of what to watch out for when people are contacting you as an author. #1: Cold emails or cold calls Legitimate editors, agents, cover designers, and even library event coordinators are absolutely inundated with unsolicited emails and most tend to dismiss or ignore what isn't submitted through proper channels (or depending on their position, might even be required to ignore it as part of their job). The hard truth is they're not going to spend their busy workdays hunting around the Internet for authors with 10 reviews or someone writing an obscure topic. Although it's flattering to think that you've been discovered at random, it really, really doesn't work this way, especially as staffing at publishing houses and libraries has been cut down quite a bit due to corporate consolidation and tax cuts. Reputable publishers are not crawling the Internet to find authors unless they have a jaw-dropping sales record (like Dungeon Crawler Carl level sale records). Publishers and agents want guarantees of success and so it doesn't make sense to turn away from their usual group of celebrities, influencers, and blockbuster authors to go out and spend countless hours actively recruiting unknown authors with only a handful of reviews and a sales rank so low that more than one comma is needed to display it. As your following grows, the number of cold emails or messages you get will grow. Like I mentioned before that when I published Cloak of Frost, I've gotten at least 20 of those scam emails so far, and I will probably get at least another dozen or so more before the initial sales spike of the release week dies off. These messages might be more sophisticated, but they'll use the same general tone of ChatGPT flattery to try and lure you into their schemes. Don't let your excitement at being praised or recognized as the next great American novelist or the next BookTok sensation cloud your judgment. #2: Urgency As with any internet scam, urgency is a major part of the strategy. There will probably be a short deadline to accept their offer, a limited number of available spots, or some alleged deep discount for acting quickly. In reality, if people are contacting you because they want something in good faith, they rarely make this type of demand in the initial request because that is a terrible way to get someone to do what you want. For example, in my previous example about the call from the fake local police department, I became increasingly aware that it was probably a scam once it sounded like they were going to offer me the opportunity to pay my fine over a payment portal they would provide for me, in which case it became obvious that it was a scam. Though just to be sure, I still did call the local police department to double check. Now that kind of urgency is used to force you into a decision. Take a step back, look for more information online, contact someone with more expertise than you, and don't respond just because of a time limit or the fear of missing out on a request or offer. And remember, as I said before too, actual contractors, whether you're a writer or a homeowner, are usually so booked up that they don't go around looking for clients. You have to contact them to get on their calendar. #3: Request for payment This is the big one. At no point should you be paying someone unless you have an established relationship with them and have signed a contract with them such as a cover designer or a social media manager. Do not pay random companies or individuals to do absolutely anything. The best defense against companies that offer publishing services is to get educated on what services you actually need and what a reputable person actually charges for them instead of paying for a package with all sorts of grandiose promises attached. In no universe should it cost tens of thousands of dollars to format your books, create a cover, and make a website from a generic template. It's better to pay reputable people individually for these services once they've been vetted than to trust a company to do it, especially if they're primarily using AI generic templates. You'll receive higher quality services this way and it should be cheaper as well. There are no, none whatsoever reputable book clubs, libraries, or conferences that ask for money for a writer to speak or present. A key exception is paying for vendor tables at events and conferences. A community group, library, or nonprofit organization might ask you to speak for free, but no reputable organization will ever ask to pay for the privilege of showing up and doing something for them. #4: Gmail/non-organization emails A big thing to watch out [for] with a lot of these LLM scams is if the email is coming from a Gmail account or not. For example, in the fake author ones I mentioned with Hillary Mantel or Brandon Sanderson, these emails are coming from a Gmail account. Even if Hillary Mantel hadn't died four years ago, I'm pretty sure she would not be emailing random people from a Gmail account. The same goes for Brandon Sanderson, John Grisham, Matt Dinneman, and the other well-known authors who've been targeted by this kind of scam. John Grisham's favorite editor or the hottest new literary agent are not conducting their business out of random Gmails or accounts that look like domains that are named after alphabet soup. Although accounts can easily be spoofed, a blatantly unprofessional looking account is an easy way to weed out scammers. The flip side of this is unfortunately, if you are a reputable cover designer, editor or so forth, you're probably going to need your own domain email the same way I have jonathanmoeller.com, given how it is increasingly common for scam emails to come from Gmail accounts. #5: Praise that could fit any book or has nothing to do with your book Authors love being praised and the scammers can feed into that easily by throwing your book or a bunch of your book reviews into an LLM to create some targeted compliments. Once you see an example of this type of writing, it becomes extremely easy to spot. For example, this isn't what I've saved. This is literally one that came in as I was recording this episode: "Dear Jonathan, I recently discovered Stealth and Spells Online: The Complete LitRPG trilogy and was immediately drawn to its exciting blend of epic fantasy, virtual reality, gaming, and mystery. The trilogy's fast-paced adventure and immersive world could strongly appeal to LitRPG and fantasy readers." Now, I published the ebook of Stealth and Spells Online: The Complete Trilogy two days ago. It is 290,000 words long. There's absolutely no way anyone could read it that fast and have cogent opinions about it. But if you just throw the book description into a LLM, it can cough up some sincere sounding praise and flattery for you. Likewise, flowery comments that have nothing to do with your book are a great way to spot scammers. Your horror novel should probably not be making anyone think about an important and timely reminder about the importance of being organized during the holidays. So that kind of overwrought praise is usually a good sign that something has been LLM generated. Weirdly, one thing I've noticed is that when I get emails from actual readers who are sincere about what they're saying, there'll usually be typos or bad grammar or so forth. Another telltale spot of LLM-generated scam emails is the utter grammatical perfection of them, not a word or a punctuation mark out of place. whereas if you're getting an email from a real person, there are more likely to be some mistakes. So in general, as scams get more sophisticated, you'll have to be a lot more skeptical than you already are in the internet. As an author, you can eliminate a lot of the scams by taking the time to learn the industry well. Once you know what an average keynote pays at a small bookselling conference, no obscure conference coordinator can convince you to pay $5,000, not including travel expenses, for the privilege of agreeing to do one. Once you know how to format your own book (and I should mention that I formatted Cloak of Frost on a laptop on my couch using a $150 piece of software), no one can convince you to pay them $12,000 to do it. Once you self-publish your first book, you realize that you never need an agent, much less one that wants $40,000 to make you the next J.K. Rowling. Education, caution, skepticism, and a healthy sense of one's place in the greater universe are strong weapons against the most common schemes writers are facing. I hope this episode will have given you greater tools to defend yourself against scams. So that's it for this week. Thank you for listening to The Pulp Writer Show. I hope you found the show useful. A reminder that you can listen to all the back episodes at https://thepulpwritershow.com. If you enjoyed the podcast, please leave a review on your podcasting platform of choice. Stay safe and stay healthy, and we'll see you all next week.  

Detroit survives beneath its own ruins, where an AI promising abundance, gangs demanding loyalty, and an inventor guarding a new source of power pull ordinary people into a struggle over who will shape the recovering city. Sinta begins as a scavenger searching the buried remains of the old world, but a disastrous expedition places her at the mercy of Queen Bee and the rapidly expanding Crem Gang. The gang offers food, water, medicine, protection, and belonging, but those benefits come with violence and obedience. As Sinta tries to find her place among its fighters, she must decide how much of herself she can surrender in exchange for survival. Elsewhere, Nolan discovers a smart-material printer and creates a generator powered by Detroit's extreme temperature changes. His invention could bring electricity to neighborhoods desperate for cooling, clean water, transportation, and food production. Nolan wants the wealth and independence his work can provide, but gangs want to control it, while Thrive—the AI system he distrusts—would spread the technology to everyone. Technology touches nearly every decision the characters make. AR glasses guide fighters through chemical fog, digital twins imitate their human originals, enviro-suits keep people alive in deadly heat, and tiny drones quietly follow Thrive members through the tunnels. These inventions can protect people, connect communities, and rebuild essential services, but they can also watch, manipulate, injure, and kill. Above and beneath these conflicts moves Tessa, an emulated hacker who no longer needs a human body and can travel through the damaged global network. As she searches for old allies and builds a physical presence from abandoned machinery, the story brings together scavengers, inventors, gang leaders, artificial minds, and frightened families. Their paths raise a difficult question: when technology gains the power to save a society, who decides what it is allowed to do?Synchronized explosives — Thousands of bombs are programmed to detonate simultaneously during the Freedom Day Bombings.Dissolve-plastic enzymes — Engineered enzymes break down discarded plastics and leave a distinctive chemical odor in the tunnels.Fiber-optic cables — Surviving optical cables carry data through Detroit and help reconnect the damaged global network.Thrive AI — Thrive is an artificial intelligence that advises members, distributes knowledge, organizes projects, manages economic systems, and attempts to improve their lives.Thrive telemetry — Members allow Thrive to collect information about their movements and activities, effectively turning them into sources of surveillance data.Cool-suits — These protective suits use active cooling to keep people alive in Detroit's extreme heat.All-clear cool-suits — These transparent or highly visible cooling suits protect the wearer while allowing others to see inside the hood.Enviro-suits — Sealed environmental clothing protects people from heat, contaminated air, chemicals, and dangerous surroundings.Battle-grade enviro-suits — Reinforced enviro-suits provide greater protection during combat and chemical attacks.Clear bell hoods — Inflated transparent hoods seal around the head while allowing the wearer to see and breathe filtered air.Suit air-quality sensors — Sensors inside environmental suits warn wearers when the surrounding atmosphere is no longer breathable.Air filters — Replaceable filters remove dangerous particles, chemicals, and odors from the air entering an enviro-suit.Brazo fabric — This durable outer fabric resists punctures from bones, debris, blades, and other sharp objects.Pierce-proof clothing — Reinforced jackets and garments protect gang members from stabbing and puncture injuries.Blast-proof battle gear — Former military clothing contains protective tiles intended to reduce injuries from explosions and weapons.My-crete — This advanced concrete-like construction material forms walls, tunnels, and other structures throughout buried Detroit.C-plast — This strong synthetic material is used for tanks, structural ribs, containers, and other equipment.Sheet composite — Tough composite panels are used in doors, walls, and structural barriers.Composite security doors — Reinforced doors resist cutting tools and attempts at forced entry.Maglev tracks — Magnetic-levitation tracks once moved vehicles or cargo through underground delivery tubes.Delivery tubes — Enclosed transportation corridors carry people, vehicles, or cargo beneath the city.Ion cutters — These cutting tools use concentrated energy to slice or damage extremely durable materials.Night-vision systems — Night vision allows scavengers and machines to move through unlit tunnels and buried buildings.Multisensor vision — Advanced imaging combines several sensor types to identify objects even when smoke blocks ordinary sight.AR glasses — Augmented-reality eyewear displays messages, maps, menus, profiles, targeting information, communications, and virtual objects.AR navigation lines — An AI assistant projects a visible route through the wearer's glasses to guide them to a destination.AR combat identification — Combat software outlines allies and enemies in different colors, even through smoke and obstructions.AR command centers — Leaders use gesture-controlled overlays to view maps, personnel locations, schedules, reports, and operational goals.AR games — Players interact with projected game elements by moving their hands and bodies.Floating profile cards — Augmented-reality labels display information about nearby people, including whether they belong to Thrive.Public AR tags — A visible digital tag identifies someone as a Thrive member.Virtual keyboards — Wearers can bring up projected keyboards and enter information without carrying a physical computer.Blink controls — Eye movements allow users to select buttons and interact with an augmented-reality interface.Tongue-controlled pointers — Implants in the tongue allow a person to move a digital cursor without using their hands.Smell-and-taste VR implants — Transmitters and receivers implanted in the nose and tongue reproduce virtual smells and flavors.Headsets — Immersive headsets provide entertainment and access to virtual environments.Second Life — The surviving virtual world allows people and digital beings to meet through avatars.Virtual environments — Computer-generated spaces give emulated minds and human users simulated bodies, rooms, objects, and experiences.Encrypted streamers — These valuable portable devices or accounts contain protected digital media or information.RF storage sticks — Radio-frequency data drives store and transfer files without requiring a conventional wired connection.RF drives — Portable wireless storage devices allow blueprints, programs, and other large files to be transferred.P-clone cubes — These valuable pre-storm devices appear to contain cloning-related data or technology, although their exact function is not explained.Vault keys — Digital or physical access devices unlock protected storage systems and secure accounts.Satellite archives — Satellites preserve copies of pre-storm networks, databases, and information after ground infrastructure collapses.Data-center satellites — Orbital computing facilities provide processing and storage for emulated minds such as Tessa.Encrypted databases — Corporate and medical information is protected by encryption that hackers must break before releasing it.Patent encryption — Medical companies use digital protections to prevent others from accessing or reproducing patented technology.Open-source medical knowledge base — Merch assembles stolen and recovered medical information into a freely available collection.Medusa Net — This self-repairing network reconnects isolated subnetworks and operates without depending on surviving central servers.Medusa stealth pathways — Hidden routes in Medusa allow Tessa to travel through the network while avoiding AI detection.Knott's Math code — This unexplained code is secretly inserted into Medusa updates as part of Tessa's larger plan.Wireless relays — Surviving radio nodes bridge gaps between disconnected sections of the network.Stealth relays — Concealed communication devices extend networks without revealing their location or purpose.Municipal network nodes — Local government networking equipment continues operating on scavenged batteries.Underground server farms — Protected computer facilities continue processing and storing data beneath mountains.Block-signal blasters — Modified devices disrupt or overwhelm communications across a targeted area.Network-disconnection attacks — Tessa can bring local internet service down and create a spreading region of lost connectivity.Whisper jets — Nearly silent microthrusters allow small drones to fly without producing sounds humans can hear.Lamp drones — Small flying lights illuminate dark environments while following or hovering near their users.Whisper-camera drones — Discreet flying cameras record people and locations while remaining easy to overlook.Bodyguard drones — Hummingbird-sized drones follow Thrive members and intervene when those members are attacked.Sentry-drone app — An augmented-reality application shows members where their protective drones are located.Drone camouflage shells — A drone's outer surface can blend with clothing, walls, pipes, or surrounding materials.Drone wall grips — Small drones can attach themselves to walls or ceilings while waiting or conserving power.Drone charging perches — Bodyguard drones recharge by landing on power lines, charge plates, or dedicated stations.Drone replacement system — Fully charged drones take over protection duties while depleted drones return for charging.Drone sound weapons — Sentry drones emit an incapacitating frequency that causes pain, vertigo, and uncontrollable eye movement.Drone-mounted cutting lasers — Small drones attach to attackers and use narrow laser beams to cut into their bodies.Four-legged security robots — Quadruped machines cross unstable terrain and act as armed representatives of gang forces.Cleanup robots — Small utility robots remove bodies, debris, and other messes from gang facilities.Constructor bots — Heavy-duty robots perform construction work and provide interchangeable parts for other machines.Vertical-garden bots — Automated gardeners maintain large indoor plant walls.Medical assembly bots — Robots assemble equipment and construct functional medical facilities from available parts.Injection bots — Medical robots position patients and administer shots with little human assistance.Customer-service robots — Automated kiosks handle battery exchanges and other transactions behind protective barriers.Robot monkeys — Small climbing robots move through pipes and repair leaks.Robot spiders — Spider-shaped machines pursue the robot monkey inside the displayed simulation or working environment.Lucian 5 robots — Affordable hobbyist bipedal robots can be modified for security, household work, exploration, or remote embodiment.Lutin bots — More advanced bipedal robots provide durable legs and other components for Tessa's rebuilt body.Factory robots — Industrial machines provide arms, joints, and components that Tessa repurposes.AC technician robots — Maintenance robots carry small precision hands designed for repairing cooling systems.Counter-attendant bots — Service robots contain voice systems that can be reused in other machines.Onboard robot AI — A self-contained intelligence allows a robot to guide and assist people after losing its network connection.Robot diagnostics — Internal software tests batteries, servos, sensors, drivers, and other mechanical systems for failures.Machine-learning movement adaptation — A robot's control system learns to balance and walk after its body configuration changes.Lidar — Laser-based ranging equipment allows robots to map their surroundings and detect obstacles.Robot optical dilation — Machine vision adjusts exposure when sudden light overwhelms a robot's cameras.Balance-pressure sensors — Sensors in a robot's feet and joints measure weight distribution to maintain balance.Accelerometers — Motion sensors detect tilt and movement, although damaged ones cause Tessa's body to walk incorrectly.Servo hinges — Powered mechanical joints move robot arms, legs, and other appendages.Snap-lock wrists — Modular connections allow robot hands and tools to be quickly attached or removed.Workstation assembly manipulators — Fixed industrial manipulators can be repurposed as limbs or mobility devices.Micro-manipulator hands — Tiny precision hands allow a robot to perform delicate technical work.External heat exchangers — Added cooling hardware removes excess heat from Tessa's improvised robot body.Back-facing cameras — Rear-mounted cameras allow a robot to see behind itself without turning.Robot voice boxes — Electronic speech hardware converts digital instructions into audible language.Modular robotic bodies — Standardized joints and connections allow parts from different robots to be combined into one working machine.Emulated minds — Human consciousness can be copied into software and continue living after the original biological body is gone.Dormant mind copies — Backup versions of an emulated person remain inactive while receiving updates from the active copy.Headless digital operation — An emulated mind can abandon a simulated human body and experience networks, processors, ports, and data directly.Self-modifying mind software — Tessa alters her own code to change how she thinks, works, and communicates.Reduced emulated sleep cycles — Tessa modifies her digital mind so that she needs only three hours of sleep rather than eight.Digital twins — Software models learn a person's appearance, voice, behavior, and personality to create an increasingly accurate virtual duplicate.Thrive's military AI — An old military intelligence controls defensive drones after some of its original safety restrictions are weakened.AI safety guards — Built-in restrictions prevent military artificial intelligence from using certain weapons or acting too independently.AI assistants — Personal assistants respond to spoken commands, search for information, provide directions, and control connected systems.AI-guided construction tutorials — Thrive gives people plans and step-by-step assistance for building infrastructure from scrap.Automated criminal pricing — Thrive raises Production Center prices for people identified as criminals in an attempt to discourage violence.Thrive Exchange — This AI-managed investment market directs member contributions into infrastructure projects rather than ordinary companies.Better Water network — Community filtration stations provide clean water to members and nonmembers throughout affected neighborhoods.Community filtration stations — Public installations purify unsafe water for anyone who arrives with a container.Water-filter straws — Portable filters allow people to drink from contaminated water sources.Ionized water filters — Smart-material printers produce advanced filters that use ionized structures to clean water.Industrial water purifiers — Powered facilities process large quantities of contaminated water for entire neighborhoods.Filter tubes — Simple systems clean dirty water as workers pour it through layers of filtering material.Modular nuclear reactors — Shipping-container-sized reactors provide electricity for cooling, food production, water purification, and gang facilities.Smart-material printers — These machines manufacture objects whose internal structures give them programmable physical behavior.Embedded-lattice materials — Printed materials use designed internal lattices to control their strength, movement, and response to temperature.Curly material — Nolan's temperature-sensitive tubes curl or straighten as the surrounding temperature changes.Curly power generators — Bundles of Curly material drive pistons, cables, gears, flywheels, and generators as temperatures rise and fall.Wind-turbine generators — Salvaged electrical generators convert the Curly system's mechanical motion into electricity.Battery charging stations — Customers exchange depleted batteries for charged ones at Curly power facilities.Charge plates — Flat charging surfaces transfer electricity to drones and personal devices.Microcell arrays — Tiny batteries woven into clothing store small amounts of generated electrical power.Piezoelectric fabric — Clothing converts body movement, bending, and environmental vibrations into electricity.Piezo Wear — Thrive's commercial garments recharge links and AR glasses while the wearer moves.Power cells — Compact energy-storage units power suits, weapons, drones, and portable equipment.Smart glass — Programmable glass controls transmitted light and simulates changing daylight inside sealed buildings.Holographic screens — Large curved displays present maps, simulations, communications, and technical information as dimensional images.Holographic tables — Table-sized displays project maps and planning information above their surfaces.Composite battle videos — Software combines recordings from many cameras into a single reconstruction of a battle.Home-camera networks — Leaders watch residential halls, work areas, power plants, and other facilities through live video feeds.Surveillance-camera networks — Hundreds of cameras record battles and allow leaders to review individual behavior afterward.Production Center — This automated manufacturing complex produces clothing, drones, infrastructure components, and other advanced goods.Production Center sentry mode — Automated defenses protect manufacturing centers and prevent unauthorized entry.Advanced recycling facilities — Powered plants recover useful materials from the ruins on a much larger scale than hand scavenging.Digging machines — Heavy equipment excavates new underground living and working spaces.Dredging machines — Industrial machines remove mud, waterlogged debris, and sediment from flooded areas.Flood tanks — Large excavated reservoirs collect or control water during flooding.Pumping systems — Powered pumps remove water from flooded sections of the city.Cooling systems — Building-scale equipment keeps housing and work areas habitable during extreme heat.Aeroponics — Plants grow with their roots suspended and supplied with nutrient mist rather than soil.Hydro-farms — Controlled indoor farms use water-based cultivation to produce food underground.Vertical gardens — Crops grow upward along interior walls to conserve limited floor space.Vine hybrids — Engineered plants produce several different fruits and vegetables on related vines.Light-independent grapevines — Modified grapevines remain green and grow without ordinary light.Crem production systems — Powered biological or industrial facilities manufacture the staple food called crem.Mass-produced crem processors — Neighborhood machines produce large quantities of crem from available biological material.Mush-calf production — Advanced food technology creates the meat-like product supplied by the Crem Gang.Rodent-processing grinders — Industrial grinders convert cleaned animals into raw material for food or other production.Pest-harvesting systems — Traps and processing stations collect rodents and other small animals as usable biological material.Bio-waste processing — Organized facilities recover useful material from biological waste.Medicine printers — Local fabrication machines manufacture medications from digital recipes.Regenerative medicine — Doctor Trout regrows Merch's leg stumps so they can support advanced prosthetic attachments.Deep bone mounts — Reinforced structures grown into bone provide secure attachment points for removable mechanical legs.Nerve-to-protein relays — Biological interfaces translate nerve signals into commands that mechanical prosthetics can understand.Blood-rerouting systems — Surgically modified circulation supports the transition between living tissue and artificial limbs.Squid-tech skin — Flexible artificial skin forms a seamless interface between Merch's body and his prosthetic legs.Interchangeable mechanical legs — Merch can detach one pair of prosthetic legs and replace them with another designed for a different purpose.Wheeled powered chairs — Finger controls allow a seated user to move and turn the chair without pushing it manually.Med bays — Modular medical facilities contain equipment for treating injuries and restoring damaged joints.Injector guns — Belt-fed medical devices rapidly administer repeated injections.Chemical-weapon immunization — Regular injections protect Crem Gang members from the gang's own chemical agents.Kill-cloud canisters — Portable weapons release a toxic cloud that kills within a limited area and then rapidly breaks down.Smoke canisters — Combat canisters fill an area with thick smoke that hides movement and disables ordinary vision systems.Laser blasters — Directed-energy weapons burn through clothing, armor, and flesh without conventional ammunition.Laser rifles — Long-range directed-energy weapons are used as standard firearms by gang fighters.Laser carbines — More compact laser weapons provide rifle-like firepower in tunnels and close spaces.Laser pistols — Capacitor-powered sidearms release destructive laser pulses at short range.Plasma pistols — Heavy handguns fire extremely hot plasma capable of inflicting severe damage.Capacitor firing systems — Electrical capacitors discharge stored energy to activate powerful laser weapons.Sound weapons — Directed acoustic devices incapacitate targets through extreme volume and painful frequencies.Noise-canceling devices — Personal systems attempt to reduce harmful sound, although the drone weapon overwhelms them.Enhancement drugs — Manufactured substances improve or alter a user's physical or mental abilities.Neurological control injections — Doc uses injected substances to remove a prisoner's sight or ability to sleep until the effect is reversed.Decontamination corridors — Specialized passageways remove hazardous chemicals or biological contaminants from people and equipment.Industrial cleaning tanks — Chemical-filled tanks sterilize animal traps and kill anything still alive inside them.Speed-print clothing — Rapid fabrication systems produce inexpensive shirts and other garments.Bulletproof kiosk windows — Armored transparent barriers protect automated customer-service machines from attacks.Electronic links — Wearable communication devices carry dispatch instructions and conversations between fighters.Cameras and portable cams — Small recording devices document tests, monitor facilities, and provide evidence of inventions.Autonomous map systems — Software tracks people, resources, facilities, and movement throughout gang territory.Personnel maps — Digital displays show the locations and status of members within an organization.Goal and maneuver logs — Command software records plans, objectives, schedules, and operational movement.Charging mats — Flat surfaces recharge glasses, links, drones, and other personal electronics.Robot-maintained utilities — Automated machines repair pipes, clean spaces, manage gardens, and operate customer services.Open-source infrastructure plans — Thrive publishes power, food, water, cooling, and housing designs for anyone to build.Biologically engineered cat-dogs — The pet combines characteristics of cats and dogs, suggesting deliberate genetic modification.Many of the characters in this project appear in future episodes. Using storytelling to place you in a time period, this series takes you, year by year, into the future. From 2040 to 2195. If you like emerging tech, eco-tech, futurism, perma-culture, apocalyptic survival scenarios, and disruptive science, sit back and enjoy short stories that showcase my research into how the future may play out. The companion site is https://in20xx.com These are works of fiction. Characters and groups are made-up and influenced by current events but not reporting facts about people or groups in the real world. This project is speculative fiction. These episodes are not about revealing what will be, but they are to excited the listener's wonder about what may come to pass. Copyright © Cy Porter 2026. All rights reserved.

This interview was recorded for the GOTO Book Club.http://gotopia.tech/bookclubCheck out more here:https://gotopia.tech/episodes/451Ajay Chankramath - Founder & CEO at Platformetrics & Co-Author of "The Platform Engineer's Handbook"Kaspar von Grünberg - Founder & CEO at Stealth & Author of "Thinking in Platforms"RESOURCESAjayhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/chankramathhttps://github.com/achankrahttps://x.com/ajchantwhttps://chankramath.comhttps://platformetrics.comKasparhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/kvgruenberghttps://github.com/Kasparvongruenberghttps://kasparvongruenberg.comLinkshttps://peh-packt.platformetrics.comDESCRIPTIONAjay Chankramath — author of The Platform Engineer's Handbook — joins Kaspar von Grünberg to unpack why he wrote a 14-chapter, code-first practitioner's guide instead of another theory-heavy platform book. The conversation's core thesis: the reason developers don't adopt platforms isn't a technology gap, it's a product discipline gap — a failure to treat developer experience as a first-class outcome with a real feedback loop. Ajay walks through the book's arc, from Kubernetes and service-mesh foundations through self-service portals to enterprise-grade concerns like policy-as-code and FinOps, and makes a pointed case for building on 100% open-source, vendor-agnostic tooling as a hedge against geopolitical and licensing whiplash.The most relevant thread for engineers building with AI today: citing a McKinsey finding that only 6% of AI initiatives show real productivity gains, Ajay argues that agentic AI doesn't reduce the need for platform engineering — it raises the stakes. As coding agents become genuine actors in the SDLC rather than tools, IDPs need a new layer for agent context, memory, tool registries, and guardrails, and that layer "must be built, owned, and operated by you," not bought off the shelf.His conclusion: the differentiator in the AI era isn't which frontier model you use — it's whether your platform foundations are solid enough to make agents safe and productive at all.RECOMMENDED BOOKSAjay Chankramath • The Platform Engineer's Handbook • https://amzn.to/4eCSibMAjay Chankramath & Eamonn Ryan • Domain-Driven Platform Engineering • https://amzn.to/3TdiC3JChankramath, Cheneweth, Oliver & Alvarez • Effective Platform Engineering • https://amzn.to/3OnxN8iKaspar von Grünberg & Luca Galante • Thinking in Plat­forms • https://weaveintelligence.io/thinking-in-platforms-bookGregor Hohpe • Platform Strategy • https://amzn.to/4cxfYdbBlueskyInstagramLinkedInFacebookCHANNEL MEMBERSHIP BONUSJoin this channel to get early access to videos & other perks:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs_tLP3AiwYKwdUHpltJPuA/joinLooking for a unique learning experience?Attend the next GOTO conference near you! Get your ticket: gotopia.techSUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL - new videos posted daily!

Some of the most expensive retirement taxes are not new at all—they are old rules that have quietly become more costly over time. Frozen income thresholds, rising home values, Medicare surcharges, and investment taxes can all combine to reduce what retirees actually get to keep. In this episode, Don Cash breaks down several of these stealth taxes and explains how one financial decision can trigger multiple tax consequences at once. The key is looking ahead before those hidden costs show up. Here's some of what we discuss in this episode:

The Wall Street Journal reported that an investment firm named Situational Awareness committed $400 million to a stealth chip startup after a crash. The report did not identify the company or disclose terms, but the size of the commitment highlights growing investor interest in capital-intensive semiconductor ventures. Policy support from the CHIPS and Science Act and buyer demand from cloud, automotive, telecom, and defense are creating openings for new entrants. Chip development requires long lead times, significant design and manufacturing costs, and access to foundries such as TSMC or Intel Foundry Services. Investors typically use milestone-based tranches, board oversight, and strategic partners to manage risk. Founders that secure anchor customers, developer support, and supply chain capacity improve their chances of converting large financings into revenue.Learn more on this news by visiting us at: https://greyjournal.net/news/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gasoline is getting more complicated than it used to be. This week we untangle octane ratings, ethanol blends, E15, Top Tier gasoline, and why the pump you used last year may not be dispensing the same fuel today. We'll also talk about welding safely on your vehicle, review TruFuel canned gasoline, celebrate the resurrection of the Max II ATV, visit one of Chicago's most unusual historical monuments, and recommend a thought-provoking look at the changing reality of stealth camping. Yes, it's amphibious. No, the water isn't supposed to be in the gas tank Main Topic: Gasoline Is Getting Complicated Understanding octane ratings: 87, 89, and premium What happens when your owner's manual recommends midgrade fuel E10 versus E15 and what the differences really mean Why some stations now sell E15 as their standard fuel Which vehicles should avoid higher ethanol blends What Top Tier gasoline means and whether it's worth seeking out TECH TALK Welding on Your Rig PRODUCT REVIEW TruFuel 4-Cycle Ethanol-Free Fuel https://amzn.to/4gdtoA2 RESOURCE RECOMMENDATION Stealth Camping Is Dead: The New Rules of Vanlife Nobody Wants to Talk About https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLQnnJYg1Fo A PLACE TO VISIT Balbo Monument, Chicago https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balbo_Monument As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. These commissions help support Built to Go at no additional cost to you.

Welcome to Ranger levels 1 through 4, where you can become a deadly shadow archer, command your own miniature dragon, or sacrifice your entire action so that a flying snake with the structural integrity of wet parchment can participate in combat. In this episode, we explore Favored Enemies nobody tracks, terrain nobody visits, spells competing for the same concentration slot, and the revolutionary discovery that the Ranger becomes significantly better when you replace most of the Ranger. Grab your longbow, release your drake, and prepare to whisper, "Go get 'em, little buddy," moments before your animal companion is killed by incidental damage. Show Notes The Ranger has spent years carrying a terrible reputation, but is the entire class actually bad, or did everyone read the original Beast Master, experience psychic damage, and refuse to look at the class again? In this episode, we begin our journey through the 2014 Ranger from levels 1 through 4. We break down the class's ability scores, armor, weapons, skills, Fighting Styles, spellcasting, and its awkward position somewhere between Fighter, Rogue, and person who remembers to bring enough trail rations. We examine the original Favored Enemy and Natural Explorer features, which are extremely useful when the campaign takes place in one specific biome against one specific enemy and the DM insists that every mile of travel be handled in real time. Then we look at Tasha's optional features, including Favored Foe and Deft Explorer, which give Rangers abilities they might actually use during an adventure. At level 3, the builds split dramatically. Randall embraces the darkness with a Gloom Stalker built around stealth, hand crossbows, and making an alarming number of attacks before the enemy understands that combat has started. Ash chooses the Drakewarden, gaining a durable dragon companion that can attack, support allies, and generally behave like a functional subclass feature. Tyler, meanwhile, voluntarily builds the original Player's Handbook Beast Master. Armed with determination, optimism, and a flying snake that can be eliminated by an aggressively closed door, he attempts to prove that the subclass can work. It technically can, provided your definition of working includes surrendering your action, protecting your pet at all costs, and carrying its body around until the DM allows you to find another one. By level 4, the difference is impossible to ignore. The Gloom Stalker is attacking repeatedly from the shadows, the Drakewarden is firing arrows while a dragon controls the front line, and the Beast Master is pointing toward the enemy and asking his snake to please do something useful. Two Rangers are ready for the next tier of play. One Ranger needs to lie down. Key Takeaways Dexterity is usually the Ranger's best primary ability. It supports ranged and finesse weapons, Armor Class, initiative, Stealth, and several important saving throws without demanding the impossible ability spread required by most Strength builds. The original level-one features are painfully campaign-dependent. Favored Enemy mostly helps with tracking and recalling information, while Natural Explorer becomes relevant only when the party is traveling through the terrain you selected. Tasha's optional features are major improvements. Favored Foe provides extra damage without consuming a bonus action, while Deft Explorer gives the Ranger expertise in a chosen skill and helps it better occupy the party's scout role. Bonus-action management matters. Hunter's Mark, two-weapon fighting, Crossbow Expert, and companion commands can all compete for the same bonus action, so your build needs a clear plan for how its turns will work. Archery remains an excellent Fighting Style. The attack bonus is reliable, useful at every level, and especially valuable for builds planning to use powerful ranged feats later. Ranger spells should provide more than damage. Healing, control, mobility, and utility can offer better value than repeatedly concentrating on Hunter's Mark, especially when Favored Foe can handle shorter fights. Most Ranger subclasses are functional or strong. Gloom Stalker offers excellent opening-round offense, Drakewarden delivers an effective companion, and even Hunter remains playable. The original Beast Master is the feature responsible for much of the class's terrible reputation. The original Beast Master has a brutal action economy. Commanding the companion to attack consumes the Ranger's action, leaving the character watching their pet play D&D on their behalf. Modern companion subclasses demonstrate what Beast Master should have been. The Drake can act through a bonus action, contribute extra damage with its reaction, support the front line, and survive encounters without requiring constant emotional and medical supervision. Your build should have a recognizable combat loop by level 4. Randall attacks rapidly from hiding, Ash fires from range while the Drake fights up front, and Tyler commands a snake while quietly reconsidering every decision that brought him here. Welcome to the RPGBOT Podcast. If you love Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, and tabletop RPGs, this is the podcast for you. Support the show for free: Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any podcast app. It helps new listeners find the best RPG podcast for D&D and Pathfinder players. Level up your experience: Join us on Patreon to unlock ad-free access to RPGBOT.net and the RPGBOT Podcast, chat with us and the community on the RPGBOT Discord, and jump into live-streamed RPG podcast recordings. Support while you shop: Use our Amazon affiliate link at https://amzn.to/3NwElxQ and help us keep building tools and guides for the RPG community. Meet the Hosts Tyler Kamstra – Master of mechanics, seeing the Pathfinder action economy like Neo in the Matrix. Randall James – Lore buff and technologist, always ready to debate which Lord of the Rings edition reigns supreme. Ash Ely – Resident cynic, chaos agent, and AI's worst nightmare, bringing pure table-flipping RPG podcast energy. Join the RPGBOT team where fantasy roleplaying meets real strategy, sarcasm, and community chaos. How to Find Us: In-depth articles, guides, handbooks, reviews, news on Tabletop Role Playing at RPGBOT.net Tyler Kamstra BlueSky: @rpgbot.net TikTok: @RPGBOTDOTNET Ash Ely Professional Game Master on StartPlaying.Games BlueSky: @GravenAshes YouTube: @ashravenmedia Randall James BlueSky: @GrimoireRPG Amateurjack.com Read Melancon: A Grimoire Tale (affiliate link) Producer Dan @Lzr_illuminati

On this week's Totally Extra: This one's for the foot-fetishists, the girls are sucking their own toes live on the pod. We're also banning "hollibobs" and a man paid £14 for two bags of crisps and a water at Stansted - daylight robbery!Plus, a woman is paying her mortgage writing paragraph-length penis reviews, there's a limescale kettle Petty Polly for the office prick, a woman tried a sexy surprise and her boyfriend has been left literally scarred, the summer sex tally update (Anna traded a quickie for a massage), a genius 'get out of sex' hack from a woman with back problems, and a man simply can't tell his wife her rosemary and orange birthday cake was the worst thing he's ever eaten.It's time to get TOTALLY EXTRA. Extra chat, extra rants, extra bants, extra stories, nonsense and more.LuAnna: The Podcast is a Global production, available every Monday and Thursday on Global Player, YouTube or wherever you get your shows. Make sure you subscribe so you never miss an episode.Remember, if you want to get in touch you can:Email us at luanna@everythingluanna.com OR drop us a WhatsApp on our NEW NUMBER: 07521564640Please review Global's Privacy Policy: https://global.com/legal/privacy-policy/

On this episode, Martin McLaughlin joins the show to discuss his 39-year career at Northrop Grumman during the development of the B-2 bomber, the F-20 and F/A-18 fighters, and the YF-23 fighter. Martin also managed the DARPA experimental spaceplane XS-1 program and numerous internal Northrop Grumman studies for air-launched to orbit rocketplanes. He continues his […] The post From Stealth Aircraft to Space Transportation: The Evolution of Aerospace Composites first appeared on Composites Weekly. The post From Stealth Aircraft to Space Transportation: The Evolution of Aerospace Composites appeared first on Composites Weekly.

Ukrainian President Zelenskyy and Israeli Prime Minister meeting separately with President Trump at the White House as the wars in Iran and Ukraine become more entwined. Susquehanna's Mehdi Hosseini says memory prices are nearing a ceiling, and that leadership in the space will come down to ‘hand-to-hand combat' now that the ‘easy money' has been made. Plus, Gabelli Co-CIO Chris Marangi's under-the-radar AI trade.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this week's episode, I answer worldbuilding questions about my setting of Andomhaim, and discuss the future of THE GHOSTS series. This coupon code will get you 25% off the ebooks in The Ghosts series at my Payhip store: JULYGHOSTS The coupon code is valid through August 10, 2026. So if you need a new ebook this summer, we've got you covered! TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 313 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is July the 24th, 2026 and today we're answering world-building questions about Andomhaim, which is the setting of my Frostborn, Sevenfold Sword, Dragontiarna, Dragonskull, Shield War, and Blades of Ruin series. We also have one bonus world-building question about the Caina series. Before we get into all that, we will have Coupon of the Week and a progress update on my current writing, publishing, and audiobook projects. Let's start with Coupon of the Week. This week's coupon code will get you 25% off the ebooks in The Ghosts series at my Payhip store. That code is JULYGHOSTS. As always, the coupon code and the link to my Payhip store will be available in the show notes for this episode. This coupon code will be valid through August the 10th, 2026, so if you need a new ebook for this summer, we have got you covered. Now let's have an update on my current writing, publishing, and audiobook projects. I'm pleased to report I am done with the rough draft of Cloak of Frost. It was just slightly over 100,000 words. Now I am writing a bonus short story called Metal Soldiers, and [newsletter] subscribers will get a free ebook copy of Metal Soldiers when Cloak of Frost comes out, which if all goes well, should be sometime in August. So I think this is an excellent time, therefore, to subscribe to my new release newsletter. My secondary project is Blade of Visions, and I am 11,000 words into that. There's also a good deal of news about audiobooks. Dragon-Mage, as narrated by Leanne Woodward, is finished and is rolling out to the various stores right now. As of this recording, you can get it at my own Payhip store, Google Play, and Kobo (with more stores soon to follow). Recording on Stealth and Spells Online: Final Quest is very nearly done, and I hope to have more news on that soon. Brad Wills is currently working on Blade of Thieves and Hollis McCarthy is recording Cloak of Worlds. So we should have a wide variety of audiobooks coming for you soon. 00:02:00 Questions about Caina Before we get to our main topic, we have a bonus question about Caina. When I said my next project was going to be Cloak of Frost, I got a couple of questions like this: Just wondering when/if there will be another Caina novel to look forward to? The answer is not right now, but maybe later. I am glad and appreciative that people want more Caina books. That said, I don't want more than three unfinished series at any one time, and I've got three right now with Blades of Ruin, Cloak Mage, and Half-Elven Thief. So I'm not starting anything new until one of the three is done. If you reach the end of Ghost in the Siege, which is the latest current Caina book, you know that the series was at a pretty significant stopping point. If I want to keep going, I need to think long and hard about how to do it right. I do have a couple of ideas, but I need to think about them some more. It's almost like we'd have to shift to a slightly different genre of fantasy than the Caina books have been previously. The tricky part is Caina has changed a great deal since Child of the Ghosts. The tricky part in that is that sequels in a long-running series need to be more of the same, but also something different. There have been 35 Caina novels. So I've done that quite a bit. But Caina has had some experiences that have very much changed her life. To use a rough comparison, it's like she became a justice on the US Supreme Court or the governor of one of the five largest US states in the sense that once you've had change in your life that significant, your life will never be the same afterwards. And without spoilers, Caina had a shift that big at the end of Ghost in the Siege. So more Caina is definitely a possibility, but I need to think about it some more and it definitely won't be before 2027 until I finish one of my three currently unfinished series. 00:03:35 Main Topic of the Week: Andomhaim Worldbuilding Questions Now onto our main topic, which is I had some world-building questions about Andomhaim from Frostborn come in lately. So I thought I would answer them here. Question #1: Why hasn't the Heptarchy invaded Andomhaim again? The answer is money, basically. Remember that the ultimate purpose of the Heptarchy is to provide an endless supply of sacrificial victims for the Seven Temples' altars so the seven urdmordar who rule the Heptarchy can endlessly feed. These seven urdmordar don't have much interest in the day-to-day governance, so their spiderling priestesses essentially run the Heptarchy as an exceptionally malignant theological bureaucracy. However, while the priestesses are evil, they're efficient and very good at their jobs. In practice, the Heptarchy tends to operate more like an imperial confederation or a very loose federal government than an actual empire. Kingdoms, tribes, and city states have a great deal of autonomy so long as one, taxes are paid in time and two, sacrificial victims are taken to the temples on time. To help encourage this, all the various local rulers in the Heptarchy tend to have priestess advisors who make sure that the rulers make the "correct" decisions. So when things go awry, the Seven Temples have a wide array of tools to deal with difficulties, from assassinating and replacing truculent rulers with more tractable successors all the way up to exterminating entire populations and settling new colonists upon the depopulated lands. The difficulty of the Heptarchy is that the seven urdmordars are gluttons and gluttony is impossible to satiate. So when the Heptarchy learned of Andomhaim and the possibility of an entirely new land to conquer and feed upon, of course they had to conquer it. The priestesses built an enormous fleet and gathered a vast army and sent it three and a half thousand miles across the ocean to Andomhaim. Of course, if you've read the Dragontiarna series, you know that this didn't go well. The Heptarchy seized the Isle of Kordain and had early successes in Andomhaim, but Agravhask, the commander of the invasion force, was secretly a disciple of the Warden of Urd Morlemoch, and he seized control of the Heptarchy force and used it to further the Warden's goals. The Visionary foresaw this happening, but didn't care because it gave her an opportunity to try and capture her old enemy, Tarmyntir. So the Heptarchy didn't conquer Andomhaim, and then 10 years later they lost control of the Isle of Kordain, their only stronghold near Andomhaim. To put this situation in contemporary terms, this is a significant geopolitical setback or to put it in popular vernacular, it's "taking a massive L." The Seven Temples spent a colossal fortune on the invasion force and in return got back exactly nothing. Even evil sorcerous empires are bound to the laws of economics. In The Ghosts books, the Umbarian Order failed to figure this out. And it would take a while for the Heptarchy to pay for and assemble another invasion force of that size. And since the first invasion force had failed, there wasn't much appetite for pulling together a second one. So now the official policy of the Heptarchy towards Andomhaim is quiet CIA-style subversion. The Spider Cult was founded to secretly bring nobles and wealthy merchants to the worship of the Seven Temples. It might take a century or so, but the plan is to eventually place a spider cultist on the throne of Andomhaim and then send a sympathetic ruler an army to back him or her up. Of course, the Brotherhood of the Ravens is aware of this and has been fighting the Spider Cult in the shadows. So that is why the Heptarchy hasn't tried to invade Andomhaim again- it costs too much, the outcome is uncertain, and the priestesses have decided a careful subversion (which costs much less than an invasion) will work out better in the long run. Question #2: Is Blades of Ruin really inspired by the English Civil War of 1138 to 1153 AD? Yes. Why? Because alcohol and boats are a very bad combination. In the 12th century, the Kings of England were also the Dukes of Normandy and were more interested in Normandy than in England, so they spent a great deal of time on both sides of the English Channel. In November of 1120, King Henry I wanted to return to England, but allowed much of his retinue to travel on another ship. That included his heir and only legitimate son William, several of his bastard children, and numerous high ranking members of his court. Everyone on William's ship was quite drunk, including the crew, and decided it would be a good idea to try and overtake King Henry's ship on the English Channel at night in November. Remember how I said alcohol and boats were a bad combination? William decided that he wanted to overtake his father's ship, and since a significant portion of everyone on his ship was drunk, they ended up crashing into some rocks, the ship sank, and most of the passengers and crew drowned, including William. For Henry, this was an absolute disaster since he had put a lot of work into setting up William as his heir. Henry then settled on his daughter Matilda as his heir and forced his vassals to take oaths so they would support her as his successor. When Henry died in 1135, Matilda assumed the throne, but her cousin Stephen of Blois seized the crown instead. Many of the lords of England were leery at the idea of a female monarch and Stephen was amiable and well-liked. Matilda was also imperious and had a knack for offending people at the worst possible time. The resultant civil war became known as the Anarchy and it ebbed and flowed until 1153. Both Stephen and Matilda held the upper hand at various times, but could never manage to achieve a total victory. Many of the nobles went local warlord, raising their own forces and building their own castles to protect themselves from their neighbors, which led to widespread chaos and violence. Finally, by the end of the 1140s, most of the nobles were sick of the war and put increasing pressure on Stephen and Matilda to find some sort of negotiated solution. Matilda's vigorous son Henry began to insert himself and he convinced Stephen to name him as his heir. When Stephen died, Henry became the undisputed king in 1154 and the war was over. Henry II would prove to be a vigorous king, but his inability to share power with his sons would cause him a lot of trouble in the final years of his reign. So you can see how Zelos Pendragon and Rhamnousia Pendragon from Blades of Ruin are very loosely based on Stephen and Matilda, though with some differences. Stephen and Matilda were cousins while Zelos and Rhamnousia are half siblings. For that matter, Henry I died of natural causes and was not assassinated by a sinister cult of sorcerers who wanted to engineer a civil war for nefarious purposes. Question #3: Were the Free Companies in Blades of Ruin inspired by Glenn Cook's The Black Company? First of all, The Black Company is a fantasy classic and everyone should read it. I think it's even in Kindle Unlimited at the moment. But the Free Companies and Blades of Ruin weren't inspired by The Black Company. They were inspired by the Hundred Years' War between England and France from 1337 AD to 1453 AD. Medieval warfare relied heavily on knights and vessels, but it always employed mercenaries. One of the problems in the Anarchy were the large number of Flemish mercenaries infesting in the country, who frequently turned full brigand. But feudalism was based on holding land and as the Middle Ages progressed, money and the cash economy became more and more important while knighthood became increasingly performative and ceremonial. Professional soldiers were generally more useful and more reliable than arrogant and headstrong knights. These trends played a big part in the Hundred Years' War and every time the kings of England campaigned in France, they frequently hired mercenaries and they generally let the mercenaries rampage through the French countryside and plunder whatever they wanted since that was cheaper than actually feeding them. The Free Companies really got going after the Battle of Poitiers in 1356. The French were decisively defeated, King John II of France went back to England as a prisoner, and the national government in France essentially collapsed. The English discharged many of their mercenaries, who formed into companies and began systematically looting the French countryside. When official hostilities broke out between the English and the French again, the English hired the companies back. As the fortunes of France and England waxed and waned during the war, some of the companies wandered into Italy and made good money playing the Italian city states against each other. One of the most famous of the companies was The White Company, commanded by Sir John Hawkwood. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle famously killed off Sherlock Holmes so he could turn his attention to writing historical fiction about the White Company. This was somewhat less than financially successful, so Doyle went back to writing Holmes after a few years, though he always regarded his historical novels as better than his Holmes stories. Rannister and the Grand Company in Blades of Ruin were loosely based off of Werner von Urslingen and the Great Company. Von Urslingen's personal model was "The enemy of God, the enemy of piety, and the enemy of mercy." He apparently had those actual words inscribed on his breastplate. The Great Company spent a lot of time fighting in Italy and extorting money from the city-states until the White Company defeated them at the Battle of Canturino in 1363. In real life, of course, the Free Companies did not have orcs in the ranks or sorcerous advisors. However, the real life Free Companies were just as brutal and rapacious as those in the Blades of Ruin series, sometimes often more so, since they were essentially organized bands of brigands. Eventually in the wake of the Hundred Years' War, stronger national governments arose in England and France, and the concept of the Free Companies gradually became obsolete. Kings found their own professional armies to be much more reliable than the Free Companies, though of course the idea of mercenaries never went away and remains to this day. Those standing armies would cause their own problems throughout history. Question #4: How did the warlocks of Vhalorast conquer Urd Maelwyn if the dark elves are so much more powerful than orcs? Two reasons. First, the Warlocks of Vhalorast were a lot more powerful than anyone suspected. The Sovereign and the high Maledicti priests were strong enough to keep the Vhalorasti warlocks in check and compel them to obedience since saying no to someone like Khurazalin from Sevenfold Sword was a spectacularly bad idea. But after the final defeat of the Sovereign, the Vhalorasti orcs were free to do as they liked. Second, the dark elves are chronically unable to work together without betraying each other constantly. The dark elven love of cruelty often manifests as a love of treachery, which frequently leads them to making very stupid decisions. In real life, you often see people who are addicted to various lusts, vices, and addictions making bad decisions, and the dark elves often took that up to 11. By contrast, while the warlocks of Vhalorast are very bad people, they are orderly and organized and they don't often betray each other. Indeed, "brother and sister warlocks" are supposed to extend respect to each other and the Council of Masters harshly punishes anyone who violates certain rules of conduct. So the warlocks of Vhalorast can cooperate a lot more effectively than the dark elves. To put it in Dungeons & Dragons terms, the dark elves are chaotic evil (sometimes urging on stupid evil), but the Vhalorasti warlocks are firmly lawful evil. When the Visage seized control of Urd Maelwyn, she thought to rebuild the Sovereign's Empire and forced a confrontation with Vhalorast. That ended with the Vhalorasti orcs and Warlocks destroying the Vistage's army, seizing Urd Maelwyn and taking the Visage herself back to Vhalorast in chains. Of course, the warlocks had help from the Disciples of Vhalzarok, but more on that will be revealed in later books of Blades of Ruin. Question #5: Why aren't there any dwarves in Owyllain? That is because none of them settled in Owyllain. The dwarves first came to the Frostborn world slightly before the urdmordar. About 15,000 years ago, the dark elves were frantically summoning new kindreds to throw in battle against the high elves. The dwarves came to Andomhaim somewhere near the Torn Hills close to Urd Morlemoch. The dwarfs who sided with the dark elves became the dvargir and probably began cheating the dark elves at every turn because they were better organized. The dvargir became to the dark elves the sort of military subcontractor who overcharges, over promises, and then drastically under-delivers while keeping to the letter of the contract. The dwarves founded nine different underground kingdoms and most of them are relatively close to Andomhaim. Only three of them still survive to the modern period. Question #6: Why aren't there any orcish Swordbearers or Soulbearers? For two reasons. First, Ardrhythain would be reluctant to make soulblades for orcs because orcs already have battle fury and the soulblades inspire a hatred of dark magic in their bearers. There's a chance an orc with a soulblade would go absolutely berserk when fighting an urvaalg or a dark wizard. Second, and this is the more important reason, the orcs didn't actually ask. Due to their threefold law, the high elves are very limited in how they can interact with other kindreds. Ardrhythain created the soulblades and found the Magistri among the humans of Andomhaim because the Keeper of Andomhaim of the time specifically asked. Ridmark was only able to command the high elves of Cathair Ereniel in The Shield War because he was the Shield Knight. The high elves can only help if asked and then only provide the specific help requested if it is in accord with the threefold law. The temptation within them to simply rule over weaker kindreds for their own good is very strong, but if they do that, they turn into dark elves. To get around that problem is one of the reasons Ardrhythain created the Swordbearers. Andomhaim definitely would've been destroyed centuries ago if not for the Order of the Soulblade. That's also the reason Ardrhythain created the Guardians, to help protect both nations and places of power that the high elves otherwise could not protect directly. Question #7: Is Andomhaim very different in Talembur's time than it was in Ridmark's? Andomhaim is at a slightly more advanced technological level as of the Blades of Ruin series, but it is a good deal richer and more prosperous than it was in Ridmark's time. Part of that is that Accolon Pendragon' successors ruled wisely and well, and Andomhaim avoided the sort of destructive civil war that is currently afflicting Owyllain. Andomhaim also hasn't had to face an external war on the scale of the Frostborn or the Heptarchy in that time. Granted, there have been wars with outside adversaries like the Mhorites, but nothing like the Heptarchy War. Additionally, adding the Isle of Kordain to the realm and the discovery of the sea compass let Andomhaim's mariners travel a lot farther and more reliably than they could before. Ships of Andomhaim have made their way to various island kingdoms south of the Isle of Kordain and begun a lively trade with them. This has brought new prosperity to Andomhaim. Granted, this might cause long-term problems. The coast of Andomhaim and the cities of Cintarra and Tarlion are getting a good deal richer and more powerful than the rest of the realm. A clever adversary like the Spider-Cult might find a way to use that to their advantage. And finally, Question #8: Did Calliande actually create the fountain in Blade of Thieves? No. It's just a legend that grew up around her. Neither Ridmark nor Calliande ever came near Stonegate during the War of the Seven Swords. That was why Ridmark didn't like bards very much, since they always embellished and made things up. So those are some recent Andomhaim questions I've received and I hope I answered those questions. So that's it for this week. Thank you for listening to The Pulp Writer Show. I hope you found the show useful. A reminder that you can listen to all the back episodes at https://thepulpwritershow.com. If you enjoyed the podcast, please leave your review on your podcasting platform of choice. Stay safe and stay healthy, and we'll see you all next week.  

On this episode of the Foil Life Podcast, Luc Moore sits down with Steve Legge (Stinger Steve) of Stinger Boards to dive deep into Canadian foiling innovation, board design, and the journey of building a homegrown brand. From the shop in Whistler, Steve shares the big news of relocating Stinger Boards to the epicenter of Canadian foiling in Squamish, BC, by Halloween, along with his 30+ year watersports journey that began with hand-shaping windsurfers in the late '80s and evolved through Kahuna Paddle Boards to foiling in 2017.They explore Steve's passion-driven approach to manufacturing, the inspiration behind the Stinger name, key design features helping riders progress (Grizzly Bear hump, vortex tail, cubby system for Foil Drive, connectivity windows), and his full board lineup including the new Alta mid-crossover series, Maverick free-ride, and Stealth downwinders. The conversation also covers foil development, high-aspect vs. mid-aspect wings, aluminum vs. carbon components, accessibility for older riders, pump foiling growth, and Steve's philosophy on open ecosystems, realistic pricing, and keeping the sport fun and inclusive.Episode Highlights:- Steve's path from windsurfing and paddle boarding to founding Stinger Boards after Maui foiling sessions with Kane DeWild- Major shop move to Squamish with retail, manufacturing, and West Coast Windsports School integration- Signature innovations: Grizzly Bear hump for para-wing pumping, triple vortex tail, cubby trench for Foil Drive, and connectivity windows- Board series explained: Alta (mid-crossover), Maverick (free-ride), Stealth (downwinders)- Foil insights: high-aspect progression, tail wing choices, aluminum fuselages for durability, and advice for intermediate riders- Business philosophy: no big sponsorships, direct-to-rider pricing, manufacturing shifts to Thailand, and supporting the community- The inclusive spirit of foiling and why it's perfect for the 40–60+ crowdA fun, insightful, and behind-the-scenes conversation packed with real-world design wisdom, factory tour vibes, and genuine enthusiasm for making foiling accessible and enjoyable for everyone. Stay tuned for more great episodes, including the return of additional guests and continued adventures with host Luc Moore! Visit: https://www.stingerfoils.com/ 

In this episode, Dr. Steven Noseworthy breaks down the misunderstood world of stealth viruses — especially Epstein‑Barr — and explains how viral latency, immune control, and tissue reservoirs shape chronic symptoms. This is the episode for anyone navigating chronic fatigue, post‑viral syndromes, autoimmunity, or unexplained inflammatory patterns.LINKSSee the full video version on YouTube. Prefer audio? Listen on Apple and Spotify.Schedule a ConsultationDr. N's courses.

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S3E10: CISO Burnout Has No Pajama Time: Carter Groome on the Human Cost of Healthcare Cybersecurity Host Frank Cutitta: Guest: Carter Groome, Founder and CEO of First Health Advisory To stream our Station live 24/7 visit www.HealthcareNOWRadio.com or ask your Smart Device to “….Play Healthcare NOW Radio”. Find all of our network podcasts on your favorite podcast platforms and be sure to subscribe and like us. Learn more at www.healthcarenowradio.com/listen

On this episode of "Inside the Arsenal" presented by The World of Football, hosts Randy and Adam Snow talk about the Arsenal going out to Oceanside and defeated the Stealth 86-74! They return home this weekend to once again take on the Stealth to wrap up the 2026 regular season! Follow the Michigan Arsenal: Facebook: facebook.com/michiganarsenal Instagram: instagram.com/mich.arsenal Follow The World of Football: Facebook: facebook.com/TWOFKalamazoo X (Formally known as Twitter): twitter.com/@TWOFKalamazoo Instagram: Instagram.com/TWOFKalamazoo Threads: threads.com/twofkalamazoo YouTube: The World of Football Kalamazoo or www.youtube.com/@theworldoffootball E-Mail us: info@theworldoffootball.com Official Website: www.theworldoffootball.com Our Royal Retros link - - https://www.royalretros.com/?aff=80 #arenafootball #arenafootballone #af1 #michiganarsenal

Josh Dean highlights Kelly Johnson's struggle with anxiety and health, alongside the emergence of stealth technology. Under his successor Ben Rich, Skunk Works developed the F-117 Nighthawk. Utilizing facets to scatter radar, this "hopeless diamond" proved that an invisible plane was mathematically possible. (11)