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Going up the Arch is a pain in the Arch

(1:50) — METS: The Mets' woes continue as they collapse in their series against the Braves. (13:52) — YANKEES: The Yankees bounce back with a series win over the Twins, and head to St. Louis to gain some ground in the AL wild-card race. (21:21) — NFL PRESEASON: JJ recaps his time at the Giants and Jets' practice, and previews their preseason matchup. (25:46) — CALLS: Callers talk Yankees. (35:08) — SEAN FENNESSEY: The Ringer's Sean Fennessey returns to discuss the Mets' late-season struggles, Pete Alonso's tenure as a Met, and his early thoughts on the Jets. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. We always want to hear from you! Leave JJ a message on the listener line at 917-382-1151. Follow JJ on Twitter: https://twitter.com/john_jastremski. Follow 'NYNY' on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nynytheringer/ Host: John Jastremski Guest: Sean Fennessey Producer: Stefan Anderson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

"Our duty as Jewish youth is paving the way for ourselves. Sometimes we may feel alone . . . But the most important thing is for us as youth to pave the way for ourselves, to take action, to speak out. Even if it's hard or difficult.” As American Jewish college students head back to their campuses this fall, we talk to three leaders on AJC's Campus Global Board about how antisemitism before and after the October 7 Hamas terror attacks revealed their resilience and ignited the activist inside each of them. Jonathan Iadarola shares how a traumatic anti-Israel incident at University of Adelaide in Australia led him to secure a safe space on campus for Jewish students to convene. Ivan Stern recalls launching the Argentinian Union of Jewish Students after October 7, and Lauren Eckstein shares how instead of withdrawing from her California college and returning home to Arizona, she transferred to Washington University in St. Louis where she found opportunities she never dreamed existed and a supportive Jewish community miles from home.  *The views and opinions expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views or position of AJC. Key Resources: AJC Campus Global Board Trusted Back to School Resources from AJC  AJC's 10-Step Guide for Parents Supporting Jewish K-12 Students AJC's Center for Education Advocacy Listen – AJC Podcasts: The Forgotten Exodus: Untold stories of Jews who left or were driven from Arab nations and Iran People of the Pod:  Latest Episodes:  War and Poetry: Owen Lewis on Being a Jewish Poet in a Time of Crisis An Orange Tie and A Grieving Crowd: Comedian Yohay Sponder on Jewish Resilience From Broadway to Jewish Advocacy: Jonah Platt on Identity, Antisemitism, and Israel Follow People of the Pod on your favorite podcast app, and learn more at AJC.org/PeopleofthePod You can reach us at: peopleofthepod@ajc.org If you've appreciated this episode, please be sure to tell your friends, and rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Transcript of the Interview: MANYA: As American Jewish college students head back to their campuses this fall, it's hard to know what to expect. Since the Hamas terror attacks of October 7, maintaining a GPA has been the least of their worries. For some who attend universities that allowed anti-Israel protesters to vandalize hostage signs or set up encampments, fears still linger.  We wanted to hear from college students how they're feeling about this school year. But instead of limiting ourselves to American campuses, we asked three students from AJC's Campus Global Board – from America, Argentina, and Australia – that's right, we still aim for straight A's here. We asked them to share their experiences so far and what they anticipate this year. We'll start on the other side of the world in Australia. With us now is Jonathan Iadarola, a third-year student at the University of Adelaide in Adelaide, Australia, the land down under, where everything is flipped, and they are getting ready to wrap up their school year in November.  Jonathan serves as president of the South Australia branch of the Australian Union of Jewish students and on AJC's Campus Global Board. Jonathan, welcome to People of the Pod. JONATHAN: Thank you for having me. MANYA: So tell us what your experience has been as a Jewish college student in Australia, both before October 7 and after. JONATHAN: So at my university, we have a student magazine, and there was a really awful article in the magazine that a student editor wrote, very critical of Israel, obviously not very nice words. And it sort of ended with like it ended with Death to Israel, glory to the Intifada. Inshallah, it will be merciless. So it was very, very traumatic, obviously, like, just the side note, my great aunt actually died in the Second Intifada in a bus bombing. So it was just like for me, a very personal like, whoa. This is like crazy that someone on my campus wrote this and genuinely believes what they wrote. So yeah, through that experience, I obviously, I obviously spoke up. That's kind of how my activism on campus started. I spoke up against this incident, and I brought it to the university. I brought it to the student editing team, and they stood their ground. They tried to say that this is free speech. This is totally okay. It's completely like normal, normal dialog, which I completely disagreed with.  And yeah, they really pushed back on it for a really long time. And it just got more traumatic with myself and many other students having to go to meetings in person with this student editor at like a student representative council, which is like the students that are actually voted in. Like student government in the United States, like a student body that's voted in by the students to represent us to the university administration.  And though that student government actually laughed in our faces in the meeting while we were telling them that this sort of incident makes us as Jewish students feel unsafe on campus. And we completely were traumatized. Completely, I would say, shattered, any illusion that Jewish students could feel safe on campus. And yeah, that was sort of the beginning of my university journey, which was not great. MANYA: Wow. And that was in 2022, before October 7. So after the terror attacks was when most college campuses here in America really erupted. Had the climate at the University of Adelaide improved by then, or did your experience continue to spiral downward until it was addressed? JONATHAN: It's kind of remained stagnant, I would say. The levels haven't really improved or gotten worse. I would say the only exception was maybe in May 2024, when the encampments started popping up across the world. Obviously it came, came to my city as well. And it wasn't very, it wasn't very great. There was definitely a large presence on my campus in the encampment.  And they were, they were more peaceful than, I would say, other encampments across Australia and obviously in the United States as well. But it was definitely not pleasant for students to, you know, be on campus and constantly see that in their faces and protesting. They would often come into people's classrooms as well. Sharing everything that they would like to say. You couldn't really escape it when you were on campus. MANYA: So how did you find refuge? Was there a community center or safe space on campus? Were there people who took you in?    JONATHAN: So I'm the president of the Jewish Student Society on my campus. One of the things that I really pushed for when the encampments came to my city was to have a Jewish space on campus. It was something that my university never had, and thankfully, we were able to push and they were like ‘Yes, you know what? This is the right time. We definitely agree.' So we actually now have our own, like, big Jewish room on campus, and we still have it to this day, which is amazing.  So it's great to go to when, whether we feel uncomfortable on campus, or whether we just want a place, you know, to feel proud in our Jewish identity. And there's often events in the room. There's like, a Beers and Bagels, or we can have beer here at 18, so it's OK for us. And there's also, yeah, there's bagels. Then we also do Shabbat dinners. Obviously, there's still other stuff happening on campus that's not as nice, but it's great that we now have a place to go when we feel like we need a place to be proud Jews. MANYA: You mentioned that this was the start of your Jewish activism. So, can you tell us a little bit about your Jewish upbringing and really how your college experience has shifted your Jewish involvement, just activity in general? JONATHAN: Yeah, that's a great question. So I actually grew up in Adelaide. This is my home. I was originally born in Israel to an Israeli mother, but we moved, I was two years old when we moved to Adelaide. There was a Jewish school when I grew up. So I did attend the Jewish school until grade five, and then, unfortunately, it did close due to low numbers. And so I had to move to the public school system.  And from that point, I was very involved in the Jewish community through my youth. And then there was a point once the Jewish school closed down where I kind of maybe slightly fell out. I was obviously still involved, but not to the same extent as I was when I was younger. And then I would say the first place I got kind of reintroduced was once I went to college and obviously met other Jewish students, and then it made me want to get back in, back, involved in the community, to a higher level than I had been since primary school.  And yeah, then obviously, these incidents happened on campus, and that kind of, I guess, it shoved me into the spotlight unintentionally, where I felt like no one else was saying anything. I started just speaking up against this. And then obviously, I think many other Jews on campus saw this, and were like: ‘Hang on. We want to also support this and, like, speak out against it.' and we kind of formed a bit of a group on campus, and that's how the club actually was formed as well.  So the club didn't exist prior to this incident. It kind of came out of it, which is, I guess, the beautiful thing, but also kind of a sad thing that we only seem to find each other in incidences of, you know, sadness and trauma. But the beautiful thing is that from that, we have been able to create a really nice, small community on campus for Jewish students.  So yeah, that's sort of how my journey started. And then through that, I got involved with the Australsian Union of Jewish Students, which is the Jewish Student Union that represents Jewish students all across Australia and New Zealand. And I started the South Australian branch, which is the state that Adelaide is in.  And I've been the president for the last three years. So that's sort of been my journey. And obviously through that, I've gotten involved with American Jewish Committee.  MANYA: So you're not just fighting antisemitism, these communities and groups that you're forming are doing some really beautiful things.  JONATHAN: Obviously, I really want to ensure that Jewish student life can continue to thrive in my city, but also across Australia. And one way that we've really wanted to do that is to help create essentially, a national Shabbaton. An event where Jewish students from all across the country, come to one place for a weekend, and we're all together having a Shabbat dinner together, learning different educational programs, hearing from different amazing speakers, and just being with each other in our Jewish identity, very proud and united. It's one of, I think, my most proud accomplishments so far, through my college journey, that I've been able to, you know, create this event and make it happen.  MANYA: And is there anything that you would like to accomplish Jewishly before you finish your college career? JONATHAN: There's a couple things. The big thing for me is ensuring, I want there to continue to be a place on campus for people to go and feel proud in their Jewish identity. I think having a Jewish space is really important, and it's something that I didn't have when I started my college journey. So I'm very glad that that's in place for future generations.  For most of my college journey so far, we didn't have even a definition at my university for antisemitism. So if you don't have a definition, how are you going to be able to define what is and what isn't antisemitic and actually combat it? So now, thankfully, they do have a definition. I don't know exactly if it's been fully implemented yet, but I know that they have agreed to a definition, and it's a mix of IHRA and the Jerusalem Declaration, I believe, so it's kind of a mix. But I think as a community, we're reasonably happy with it, because now they actually have something to use, rather than not having anything at all.  And yeah, I think those are probably the two main things for me, obviously, ensuring that there's that processes at the university moving forward for Jewish students to feel safe to report when there are incidents on campus. And then ensuring that there's a place for Jewish students to continue to feel proud in their Jewish identity and continue to share that and live that while they are studying at the university.  MANYA: Well, Jonathan, thank you so much for joining us, and enjoy your holiday. JONATHAN: Thank you very much. I really appreciate it.  MANYA: Now we turn to Argentina, Buenos Aires to be exact, to talk to Ivan Stern, the first Argentine and first Latin American to serve on AJC's Campus Global Board. A student at La Universidad Nacional de San Martin, Ivan just returned to classes last week after a brief winter break down there in the Southern Hemisphere.  What is Jewish life like there on that campus? Are there organizations for Jewish students?  IVAN: So I like to compare Jewish life in Buenos Aires like Jewish life in New York or in Paris or in Madrid. We are a huge city with a huge Jewish community where you can feel the Jewish sense, the Jewish values, the synagogues everywhere in the street. When regarding to college campuses, we do not have Jewish institutions or Jewish clubs or Jewish anything in our campuses that advocate for Jewish life or for Jewish students.  We don't actually need them, because the Jewish community is well established and respected in Argentina. Since our terrorist attacks of the 90s, we are more respected, and we have a strong weight in all the decisions. So there's no specific institution that works for Jewish life on campus until October 7 that we gathered a student, a student led organization, a student led group.  We are now part of a system that it's created, and it exists in other parts of the world, but now we are start to strengthening their programming and activities in Argentina we are we now have the Argentinian union with Jewish students that was born in October 7, and now we represent over 150 Jewish students in more than 10 universities. We are growing, but we are doing Shabbat talks in different campuses for Jewish students. We are bringing Holocaust survivors to universities to speak with administrations and with student cabinets that are not Jewish, and to learn and to build bridges of cooperation, of course, after October 7, which is really important. So we are in the middle of this work. We don't have a strong Hillel in campuses or like in the US, but we have Jewish students everywhere. We are trying to make this grow, to try to connect every student with other students in other universities and within the same university. And we are, yeah, we are work in progress. MANYA: Listeners just heard from your Campus Global Board colleague Jonathan Iadarola from Adelaide, Australia, and he spoke about securing the first  space for Jewish students on campus at the University of Adelaide. Does that exist at your university? Do you have a safe space?  So Hillel exists in Buenos Aires and in Cordoba, which Cordova is another province of Argentina. It's a really old, nice house in the middle of a really nice neighborhood in Buenos Aires. So also in Argentina another thing that it's not like in the U.S., we don't live on campuses, so we come and go every day from our houses to the to the classes. So that's why sometimes it's possible for us to, after classes, go to Hillel or or go to elsewhere. And the Argentinian Union, it's our job to represent politically to the Jewish youth on campus. To make these bridges of cooperation with non-Jewish actors of different college campuses and institutions, as I mentioned before, we bring Holocaust survivors, we place banners, we organize rallies. We go to talk with administrators. We erase pro- Palestinian paints on the wall. We do that kind of stuff, building bridges, making programs for Jewish youth. We also do it, but it's not our main goal. MANYA: So really, it's an advocacy organization, much like AJC. IVAN: It's an advocacy organization, and we are really, really, really happy to work alongside with the AJC more than once to strengthen  our goals. MANYA: October 7 was painful for all of us, what happened on university campuses there in Argentina that prompted the need for a union? So the impact of October 7 in Argentina wasn't nearly as strong as in other parts of the world, and definitely nothing like what's been happening on U.S. campuses. Maybe that's because October here is finals season, and our students were more focused on passing their classes than reacting to what was happening on the Middle East, but there were attempts of engagements, rallies, class disruptions and intimidations, just like in other places. That's why we focused on speaking up, taking action. So here it's not happening. What's happening in the U.S., which was really scary, and it's still really scary, but something was happening, and we needed to react. There wasn't a Jewish institution advocating for Jewish youth on campus, directly, getting to know what Jewish students were facing, directly, lively walking through the through the hallways, through the campus, through the campuses. So that's why we organize this student-led gathering, different students from different universities, universities. We need to do something. At the beginning, this institution was just on Instagram. It was named the institutions, and then for Israel, like my university acronym, it's unsam Universidad national, San Martin unsam. So it was unsam for Israel. So we, so we posted, like every campaign we were doing in our campuses, and then the same thing happened in other university and in other universities. So now we, we gathered everyone, and now we are the Argentinian Union of Jewish students.  But on top of that, in November 2023 students went on summer break until March 2024 so while the topic was extremely heated elsewhere here, the focus had shifted on other things. The new national government was taking office, which had everyone talking more about their policies than about Israel.  So now the issue is starting to resurface because of the latest news from Gaza, So we will go where it goes from here, but the weight of the community here, it's, as I said, really strong. So we have the ability to speak up.  MANYA: What kinds of conversations have you had with university administrators directly after. October 7, and then now, I mean, are you, are you communicating with them? Do you have an open channel of communication? Or is are there challenges? IVAN: we do? That's an incredible question there. It's a tricky one, because it depends on the university. The answer we receive. Of course, in my university, as I said, we are, we are lots of Jews in our eyes, but we are a strong minority also, but we have some Jewish directors in the administration, so sometimes they are really focused on attending to our concerns, and they are really able to to pick a call, to answer back our messages, also, um, there's a there's a great work that Argentina has been, has been doing since 2020 to apply the IHRA definition in every institute, in every public institution. So for example, my university, it's part of the IHRA definition. So that's why it was easy for us to apply sanctions to student cabinets or student organizations that were repeating antisemitic rhetorics, distortioning the Holocaust messages and everything, because we could call to our administrators, regardless if they were Jewish or not, but saying like, ‘Hey, this institution is part of the IHRA definition since February 2020, it's November 2023, and this will be saying this, this and that they are drawing on the walls of the of our classrooms. Rockets with Magen David, killing people. This is distortioning the Jewish values, the religion, they are distortioning everything. Please do something.'  So they started doing something. Then with the private institutions, we really have a good relationship. They have partnerships with different institutions from Israel, so it's easy for us to stop political demonstrations against the Jewish people. We are not against political demonstrations supporting the Palestinian statehood or anything. But when it regards to the safety of Jewish life on campus or of Jewish students, we do make phone calls. We do call to other Jewish institutions to have our back. And yes, we it's we have difficult answers, but we but the important thing is that we have them. They do not ghost us, which is something we appreciate. But sometimes ghosting is worse. Sometimes it's better for us to know that the institution will not care about us, than not knowing what's their perspective towards the problem. So sometimes we receive like, ‘Hey, this is not an antisemitism towards towards our eyes. If you want to answer back in any kind, you can do it. We will not do nothing.  MANYA: Ivan, I'm wondering what you're thinking of as you're telling me this. Is there a specific incident that stands out in your mind as something the university administrators declined to address? IVAN: So in December 2023, when we were all in summer break, we went back to my college, to place the hostages signs on the walls of every classroom. Because at the same time, the student led organizations that were far left, student-led organizations were placing these kind of signs and drawings on the walls with rockets, with the Magen David and demonizing Jews. So we did the same thing. So we went to the school administrators, and we call them, like, hey, the rocket with the Magen David. It's not okay because the Magen David is a Jewish symbol. This is a thing happening in the Middle East between a state and another, you have to preserve the Jewish students, whatever. And they told us, like, this is not an antisemitic thing for us, regardless the IHRA definition. And then they did do something and paint them back to white, as the color of the wall.  But they told us, like, if you want to place the hostages signs on top of them or elsewhere in the university, you can do it. So if they try to bring them down, yet, we will do something, because that this is like free speech, that they can do whatever they want, and you can do whatever that you want. So that's the answers we receive.  So sometimes they are positive, sometimes they are negative, sometimes in between. But I think that the important thing is that the youth is united, and as students, we are trying to push forward and to advocate for ourselves and to organize by ourselves to do something. MANYA: Is there anything that you want to accomplish, either this year or before you leave campus? IVAN: To keep building on the work of the Argentinian Union of Jewish Students is doing bringing Jewish college students together, representing them, pushing our limits, expanding across the country. As I said, we have a strong operations in Buenos Aires as the majority of the community is here, but we also know that there's other Jewish students in other provinces of Argentina. We have 24 provinces, so we are just working in one.  And it's also harder for Jewish students to live Jewishly on campus in other provinces when they are less students. Then the problems are bigger because you feel more alone, because you don't know other students, Jews or non-Jews. So that's one of my main goals, expanding across the country, and while teaming up with non-Jewish partners.  MANYA: You had said earlier that the students in the union were all buzzing about AJC's recent ad in the The New York Times calling for a release of the hostages still in Gaza.Are you hoping your seat on AJC's Campus Global Board will help you expand that reach? Give you some initiatives to empower and encourage your peers. Not just your peers, Argentina's Jewish community at large.  IVAN: My grandma is really happy about the AJC donation to the Gaza church. She sent me a message. If you have access to the AJC, please say thank you about the donation. And then lots of Jewish students in the in our union group chat, the 150 Jewish students freaking out about the AJC article or advice in The New York Times newspaper about the hostages. So they were really happy MANYA: In other words, they they like knowing that there's a global advocacy organization out there on their side? IVAN: Also advocating for youth directly. So sometimes it's hard for us to connect with other worldwide organizations. As I said, we are in Argentina, in the bottom of the world. AJC's worldwide. And as I said several times in this conversation, we are so well established that sometimes we lack of international representation here, because everything is solved internally. So if you have, if you have anything to say, you will go to the AMIA or to the Daya, which are the central organizations, and that's it. And you are good and there. And they may have connections or relationships with the AJC or with other organizations. But now students can have direct representations with organizations like AJC, which are advocating directly for us. So we appreciate it also. MANYA: You said things never got as heated and uncomfortable in Argentina as they did on American college campuses. What encouragement would you like to offer to your American peers?  I was two weeks ago in New York in a seminar with other Jewish students from all over the world and I mentioned that our duty as Jewish youth is paving the way for ourselves. Sometimes we may feel alone. Sometimes we are, sometimes we are not. But the most important thing is for us as youth to pave the way for ourselves, to take action, to speak out. Even if it's hard or difficult. It doesn't matter how little it is, but to do something, to start reconnecting with other Jews, no matter their religious spectrum, to start building bridges with other youth. Our strongest aspect is that we are youth, Not only because we are Jewish, but we are youth. So it's easier for us to communicate with our with other peers. So sometimes when everything is, it looks like hate, or everything is shady and we cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel. We should remember that the other one shouting against us is also a peer. MANYA:. Thank you so much, Ivan. Really appreciate your time and good luck going back for your spring semester. IVAN: Thank you. Thank you so much for the time and the opportunity.  MANYA:  Now we return home. Campus Global Board Member Lauren Eckstein grew up outside Phoenix and initially pursued studies at Pomona College in Southern California. But during the spring semester after the October 7 Hamas terror attacks, she transferred to Washington University in St. Louis. She returned to California this summer as one of AJC's Goldman Fellows.  So Lauren, you are headed back to Washington University in St Louis this fall. Tell us what your experience there has been so far as a college student. LAUREN: So I've been there since January of 2024. It has a thriving Jewish community of Hillel and Chabad that constantly is just like the center of Jewish life. And I have great Jewish friends, great supportive non-Jewish friends. Administration that is always talking with us, making sure that we feel safe and comfortable. I'm very much looking forward to being back on campus.  MANYA: As I already shared with our audience, you transferred from Pomona College. Did that have anything to do with the response on campus after October 7? LAUREN: I was a bit alienated already for having spent a summer in Israel in between my freshman and sophomore year. So that would have been the summer of 2023 before October 7, like few months before, and I already lost some friends due to spending that summer in Israel before anything had happened and experienced some antisemitism before October 7, with a student calling a pro-Israel group that I was a part of ‘bloodthirsty baby killers for having a barbecue in celebration of Israeli independence. But after October 7 is when it truly became unbearable. I lost hundreds of followers on Instagram. The majority of people I was friends with started giving me dirty looks on campus. I was a history and politics double major at the time, so the entire history department signed a letter in support of the war. I lost any sense of emotional safety on campus. And so 20 days after October 7, with constant protests happening outside of my dorm, I could hear it from my dorm students going into dining halls, getting them to sign petitions against Israel, even though Israel had not been in Gaza at all at this point. This was all before the invasion happened. I decided to go home for a week for my mental well being, and ended up deciding to spend the rest of that semester at home. MANYA: What did your other Jewish classmates do at Pomona? Did they stay? Did they transfer as well? LAUREN: I would say the majority of Jewish students in Claremont either aren't really–they don't really identify with their Jewish identity in other way, in any way, or most of them identify as anti-Zionist very proudly. And there were probably only a few dozen of us in total, from all five colleges that would identify as Zionists, or really say like, oh, I would love to go to Israel. One of my closest friends from Pomona transferred a semester after I did, to WashU. A few other people I know transferred to other colleges as well. I think the choice for a lot of people were either, I'm going to get through because I only have a year left, or, like, a couple years left, or I'm going to go abroad.  Or I'm just going to face it, and I know that it's going to be really difficult, and I'm only going to have a few friends and only have a few professors I can even take classes with, but I'm going to get through it. MANYA: So have you kept in touch with the friends in Pomona or at Pomona that cut you off, shot you dirty looks, or did those friendships just come to an end? LAUREN: They all came to an end. I can count on one hand, under one hand, the number of people that I talked to from any of the Claremont Colleges. I'm lucky to have one like really, really close friend of mine, who is not Jewish, that stood by my side during all of this, when she easily did not need to and will definitely always be one of my closest friends, but I don't talk to the majority of people that I was friends with at Pomona. MANYA: Well, I'm very sorry to hear that, but it sounds like the experience helped you recognize your truest friend. With only one year left at WashU, I'm sure plenty of people are asking you what you plan to do after you graduate, but I want to know what you are hoping to do in the time you have left on campus. LAUREN: I really just want to take it all in. I feel like I haven't had a very normal college experience. I mean, most people don't transfer in general, but I think my two college experiences have been so different from each other, even not even just in terms of antisemitism or Jewish population, but even just in terms of like, the kind of school it is, like, the size of it and all of that, I have made such amazing friends at WashU – Jewish and not –  that I just really want to spend as much time with them as I can, and definitely spend as much time with the Jewish community and staff at Hillel and Chabad that I can. I'm minoring in Jewish, Islamic, Middle Eastern Studies, and so I'm really looking forward to taking classes in that subject, just that opportunity that I didn't have at Pomona. I really just want to go into it with an open mind and really just enjoy it as much as I can, because I haven't been able to enjoy much of my college experience. So really appreciate the good that I have. MANYA: As I mentioned before, like Jonathan and Ivan, you are on AJC's Campus Global Board. But you also served as an AJC Goldman Fellow in the Los Angeles regional office this summer, which often involves working on a particular project. Did you indeed work on something specific?  LAUREN: I mainly worked on a toolkit for parents of kids aged K-8, to address Jewish identity and antisemitism. And so really, what this is trying to do is both educate parents, but also provide activities and tools for their kids to be able to really foster that strong Jewish identity. Because sadly, antisemitism is happening to kids at much younger ages than what I dealt with, or what other people dealt with.  And really, I think bringing in this positive aspect of Judaism, along with providing kids the tools to be able to say, ‘What I'm seeing on this social media platform is antisemitic, and this is why,' is going to make the next generation of Jews even stronger. MANYA: Did you experience any antisemitism or any challenges growing up in Arizona? LAUREN: I went to a non-religious private high school, and there was a lot of antisemitism happening at that time, and so there was a trend to post a blue square on your Instagram. And so I did that. And one girl in my grade –it was a small school of around 70 kids per grade, she called me a Zionist bitch for posting the square. It had nothing to do with Israel or anything political. It was just a square in solidarity with Jews that were being killed in the United States for . . . being Jewish.  And so I went to the school about it, and they basically just said, this is free speech. There's nothing we can do about it. And pretty much everyone in my grade at school sided with her over it.  I didn't really start wearing a star until high school, but I never had a second thought about it. Like, I never thought, oh, I will be unsafe if I wear this here.  MANYA: Jonathan and Ivan shared how they started Jewish organizations for college students that hadn't existed before. As someone who has benefited from Hillel and Chabad and other support networks, what advice would you offer your peers in Argentina and Australia? LAUREN: It's so hard for me to say what the experience is like as an Argentinian Jew or as an Australian Jew, but I think community is something that Jews everywhere need. I think it's through community that we keep succeeding, generation after generation, time after time, when people try to discriminate against us and kill us. I believe, it's when we come together as a people that we can truly thrive and feel safe.  And I would say in different places, how Jewish you want to outwardly be is different. But I think on the inside, we all need to be proud to be Jewish, and I think we all need to connect with each other more, and that's why I'm really excited to be working with students from all over the world on the Campus Global Board, because I feel like us as Americans, we don't talk to Jews from other countries as much as we should be. I think that we are one people. We always have been and always will be, and we really need to fall back on that. MANYA: Well, that's a lovely note to end on. Thank you so much, Lauren. LAUREN: Thank you. MANYA:  If you missed last week's episode, be sure to tune in for my conversation with Adam Louis-Klein, a PhD candidate at McGill University. Adam shared his unexpected journey from researching the Desano tribe in the Amazon to confronting rising antisemitism in academic circles after October 7. He also discussed his academic work, which explores the parallels between indigenous identity and Jewish peoplehood, and unpacks the politics of historical narrative.  Next week, People of the Pod will be taking a short break while the AJC podcast team puts the finishing touches on a new series set to launch August 28: Architects of Peace: The Abraham Accords Story. Stay tuned.  

The Mississippi River is only 1,800 feet wide between St. Louis, Missouri, and East St. Louis, Illinois, but the “us verses them” mentality can be felt throughout the region. Anthony Lucius is determined to create connection between the two cities through music. His latest album, “SKWAD Goals Vol. 1,” brings musicians together from both sides of the river. Lucius gives a behind the scenes look at the making of “SKWAD Goals” and talks about his plans for Vol. 2.

On this month's music round-up, DJ KC Mackey joins St. Louis on the Air's Miya Norfleet and Elaine Cha to discuss their favorite new releases from local artists. Songs like “Come Back” by Paige Alyssa ooze sensuality and swag while Daemon and Trackstar the DJ challenge the state of the world on the powerful “Red Pill 84”.

On this week's episode presented by Busey Bank, I sit down with Craig Kaminer, a New York native turned St. Louis tastemaker, whose career spans decades in high-profile public relations and luxury branding. From Microsoft and Tiffany to the Italian Government Tourist Office, Craig's resume reads like a masterclass in influence. But what's truly remarkable is his pivot—from publicist to publisher—leading Sophisticated Living St. Louis, a luxury lifestyle magazine that's not only survived the digital revolution, but thrived in it. In a time when print is often considered obsolete, Craig has built an omnichannel media powerhouse that reaches tens of thousands of affluent readers through elegant storytelling, high-impact visuals, and a hyper-local lens. We'll explore how he launched the magazine, the evolution of luxury media, and why Sophisticated Living continues to be the go-to resource for brands that want to connect with the city's most influential voices.

Producer inflation data coming in far higher than expected:  Sara Eisen and Carl Quintanilla broke down the numbers alongside key commentary out of consumer earnings when it comes to tariffs, before discussing the market impact with Charles Schwab's Chief Investment Strategist Liz Ann Sonders. Plus: hear the Fed's first reaction to the inflation print – in CNBC's exclusive interview with St. Louis Fed President Alberto Musalem spanning the data, the economy, and the possibility of a rate cut in September. Also in focus: huge movers across earnings and new entrants… The CEO of options and equities exchange “Miami International” joined the team ahead of their first trade on the New York Stock Exchange, while Sara brought exclusive commentary from a call with the CEO of Tapestry – as those shares fall to the bottom of the S&P despite a top and bottom line beat.   

A documentary that chronicles years of efforts to prevent violence in St. Louis will hit streaming services on August 15. “Catching Bullets” follows the story of activist Darren Seals. Decades after his career as a drug dealer in Walnut Park, Seals returned in 2018 to buy a condemned church. Seals transformed the church into a site for youth mentoring called the Sankofa Unity Center. Seals, director Ben Scholle and producer Derrick Phillips discuss the film's creation and how young people in St. Louis become trapped in a cycle of violence and revenge.

The Cardinals are clinging to life in the Wild Card race, and we've got updates on Yadier Molina's involvement, Lars Nootbaar's bruised knee, and Nolan Arenado's shoulder recovery plan. St. Louis also picked up RHP Jorge Alcala off waivers, and somehow… they're still in this? We break down Quinn Matthews' hot streak, Jordan Walker's encouraging offensive signs, and Kyle Leahy's potential leap forward. Then, we preview the upcoming Yankees and Marlins series, plus check in on league news as the Brewers keep rolling and the Twins' sale falls through. Have a question or comment for the show? Text or leave us a voicemail at: (848) 48-BIRDS (848-482-4737)Talking About Birds is listener supported on Patreon. Support the show and join our private discord server at: www.patreon.com/talkingaboutbirds.

Huh, looks like you stumbled on some old radio spots for the BVP Parade and Faire. I wonder what these are doing here? Anyway, did you know that the hot dog bun was probably invented in St Louis? CAST:First Announcer- CydSecond Announcer- GeddyFEATURING: Our Friends at Pink Fohawk! Find them at https://open.spotify.com/show/5fKd0STUvxIlaqOdPu7ejE?si=90f97381e3b8496dWriter/Editor/Producer- CydMUSIC: Blue Rose by The Cotton Pickers (1923), uploaded by Gathacol Radio here: https://archive.org/details/Free_20s_Jazz_Collection/bluerose.oggHappy Streams by David Fesliyan here: https://www.fesliyanstudios.com/royalty-free-music/download/happy-streams/185FX:COMRadio_Tuning, FM Radio_Nicholas Judy_TDC by designerschoice -- https://freesound.org/s/805393/ -- License: Creative Commons 0Radio Fuzz for Old Radio Broadcast FF233.aif by martinimeniscus -- https://freesound.org/s/199438/ -- License: Creative Commons 0

Send us a textBall Watching hosts, Jake Koenig and Justin Graham, break down St. Louis CITY SC's 3-1 win at Nashville FC and the upcoming away match against Chicago Fire!Follow the show on X and/or Instagram (@BallWatchingSTL)! Find our guest interviews and all episodes in video form on YouTube by searching https://www.youtube.com/@ballwatchingSTL. Be sure to hit subscribe and turn notifications on!Hoffmann Brothers is the 2025 presenting sponsor of Ball Watching! Headquartered right here in St. Louis for over 40 years, Hoffmann Brothers is a full-service residential & commercial provider, providing Heating, Air Conditioning, Plumbing, Drains, Sewer, Water Heaters, Duct Cleaning, Electrical and Appliance Repair services. Visit them online at hoffmannbros.com!Make The Pitch Athletic Club & Tavern (thepitch-stl.com) your St. Louis CITY SC pregame and postgame destination for all your food and drink needs! Tell them your friends at Ball Watching sent you... Seoul Juice is the official drink of Ball Watching and made with three clean simple ingredients: water, organic lemon juice, and Korean pear juice. Get yours at Dierbergs, Sams Club, or online at seouljuice.com. Use code "BALLWATCHING" at checkout for 20% off all online orders!Shop in-store or online at Series Six (seriessixcompany.com) and receive a 15% discount on all orders storewide using code "BALLWATCHING" at checkout!

Jim Bullard, Former St. Louis Fed President discusses what he thinks the Federal Reserve should do heading into the September rates decision. He is joined by Bloomberg's Katie Greifeld and Matt Miller.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Natalie Kalmar, the creator behind FitnessFoodieSTL, a resource that empowers women and families to live well without the pressure of perfection.   “ There are so many ways that you can move your body, whether it's dance fitness, playing a sport, [or] walking your dog,” she explains. “All of that counts; all of that is movement.”    Through her blog, social media, and local collaborations, Natalie shares approachable ways to stay active, enjoy great food, and make the most of life. While she is based in St. Louis, there are plenty of practical tips and delicious recipes that everyone can learn from and enjoy.   “Food is something that you should enjoy,” she says. "Always remember that you do deserve it.”    Natalie Kalmar shares how she became Fitness Foodie STL, why group exercise is so valuable, and her personal food connections, including some Jewish food memories. She also shares her recipe for Gooey Butter Cake, which you can find below.     Learn more about Natalie at fitnessfoodiestl.com. And follow @fitnessfoodiestl on Instagram and Facebook.    For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media. Go to JewishJournal.com/podcasts to read the articles and get recipes.

The U.S. birth rate has dropped to a historic low — and demographer Ness Sandoval warns St. Louis will be one of the first major cities to feel the economic and social fallout. He shares what needs to happen for St. Louis to avoid more loss and why the city should take cues from Detroit to incentivize young families to live and work in the region. Action St. Louis Executive Director Kayla Reed also joins the conversation to discuss the May 16 tornado's displacement of north St. Louis residents and why temporary housing programs are so important to keep affected families as close to their homes and communities as possible.

Michael Calhoun talks with Seneca Director of Operations Chuck Schoene as the group looks to take over Bar-K which went out of business recently.

The Veterans Community Project in St Louis Executive Director, Rebecca Tallman, joins Megan Lynch as construction is set to begin on an expansion of their 'tiny home' community in St Louis. The effort is working to get US veterans off the street and into housing, Individual homes are 240 square feet and family houses are 320 square feet and are fully-furnished.

'Reading well by the end of third grade is a key milestone,' says Dr. Brandi Chin, Partner of Quality Schools at The Opportunity Trust. She joins Megan Lynch explaining the multi-year initiative to improve reading skills at several schools across St Louis. She calls that year, 'a critical, critical year' for long-term reading skills. EmersonLiteracyChallenge.org has more details.

Keith fields listener questions on: changes to realtor fees, down payment strategies for investment properties, and how the new 100% bonus tax depreciation really works, then staggering inflation statistics that motivate you to invest in real assets. He explains that realtor fees have shifted from a 6% listing fee to a 3% seller fee, with potential buyer contributions negotiable.  For down payments, he advises maximizing leverage while avoiding over-leverage.  Bonus depreciation allows for significant tax deductions in the first year, benefiting high-income investors.  Resources: Connect with a recommended cost segregation engineer to take advantage of bonus depreciation here. Show Notes: GetRichEducation.com/566 For access to properties or free help with a GRE Investment Coach, start here: GREmarketplace.com GRE Free Investment Coaching: GREinvestmentcoach.com Get mortgage loans for investment property: RidgeLendingGroup.com or call 855-74-RIDGE  or e-mail: info@RidgeLendingGroup.com Invest with Freedom Family Investments.  You get paid first: Text FAMILY to 66866 Will you please leave a review for the show? I'd be grateful. Search “how to leave an Apple Podcasts review”  For advertising inquiries, visit: GetRichEducation.com/ad Best Financial Education: GetRichEducation.com Get our wealth-building newsletter free— text ‘GRE' to 66866 Our YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/c/GetRichEducation Follow us on Instagram: @getricheducation Complete episode transcript:   Automatically Transcribed With Otter.ai  Keith Weinhold  0:00   Welcome to GRE. I'm your host. Keith Weinhold, fielding your listener questions on changes to realtor fees, your down payment strategy, and how the new 100% bonus tax depreciation really works, then staggering inflation statistics that motivate you to invest in real assets today on Get Rich Education.    Keith Weinhold  0:26   Since 2014 the powerful get rich education podcast has created more passive income for people than nearly any other show in the world. This show teaches you how to earn strong returns from passive real estate investing in the best markets without losing your time being a flipper or landlord. Show Host Keith Weinhold writes for both Forbes and Rich Dad advisors, and delivers a new show every week. Since 2014 there's been millions of listener downloads of 188 world nations. He has a list show guests include top selling personal finance author Robert Kiyosaki, get rich education can be heard on every podcast platform, plus it has its own dedicated Apple and Android listener phone apps build wealth on the go with the get rich education podcast. Sign up now for the get rich education podcast, or visit get rich education.com   Speaker 1  1:12   You're listening to the show that has created more financial freedom than nearly any show in the world. This is get rich education.   Keith Weinhold  1:22   Welcome to GRE from Athens, Pennsylvania to Athens, Georgia to Athens, Greece, and with listeners across 188 world nations. You are listening to get rich Education. I'm your host. Keith Weinhold, yeah, you and I are back together for a 566th wealth building week. This is not where you learn how to create wealth through careful sports wagering at DraftKings. We also don't try to do everything like WalMart. We talk about investing actually pretty aggressively yet reasonably and responsibly at the same time. Usually those attributes are opposites, but because we are leveraging the most proven wealth building vehicle of all time, real estate, where you don't have to be the landlord. You don't need to get deeply hands on with house flipping, and you don't need to own property in your local market, though you could. We are not day trading. We are decade trading. There's not a get rich quick element here at GRE, because that doesn't work. We're owning mostly long term rental properties, bringing the financially free beats debt free approach and cognizant that compound leverage Trumps compound interest. And from the day you start focusing on this, you can retire in five to 10 years, and you can take it as far as you want, because unlike many professional sports, the sport of real estate investing doesn't have any salary cap at all. I'm starting off with three of your listener questions today. You write into the show with your questions and what I've got a few that I think could help a lot of you. I answer them here. And as usual, I start with the more introductory question, and then I proceed to the more advanced. The first one comes from Sherry In Sellersburg, Indiana. I know where that is. It's just across the river and to the north of Louisville, Kentucky. Sherry asks when I go to sell my duplex, how have last year's changes in realtor fees affected my sale costs? Yeah, thanks for the question, Sherry. And a lot of people still wonder about this first and a big little technical here, but this benefits other listeners Sherry is that a realtor means that they are a member of the NAR, the National Association of Realtors. So not all people that you enlist to help you market and sell your property are realtors, because not all agents belong to the NAR. In fact, the best catch all term for this person is not an agent. Depending on the state you're doing business in, it's probably licensee, someone licensed to act as your professional intermediary in a real estate transaction. And by the way, the name of an NAR member is a realtor. It is not pronounced real utter it's realtor, like doctor and lawyer. You wouldn't call a doctor a doctor two syllables, realtor, but to get to the crux of your question, Sherry, the changes to realtor compensation took effect almost exactly a year ago. It was last August, and it has less. Of an effect on the industry than many thought. I stated last year that it likely wouldn't affect things much, especially here on the investor side, and it really hasn't. The simplified version is that the old landscape was that when you used to list the property for sale, the listing agent charged you a fee, traditionally, 6% they offered half of that to any cooperating broker that brought the buyer to you. That was simple, and that worked for decades. That changed one year ago now, when any realtor or really licensee, when they work with you, now they simply contract with you for their fee, only like 3% as a seller of the property, you no longer have an obligation to pay for the buyer side agent as well, like you used to. But when you sign a listing agreement, you can indicate that you may be willing to concede and give an allowance to the buyer when they engage a licensee on their side to help them purchase your property. So Sherry, your voluntary contribution to the buyer side is negotiable, and it's part of the offer that the buyer presents to you. Now that's what you'll see as the seller and what you should expect as a buyer. The new landscape is that buyers negotiate a personal service agreement upfront with their licensee. Their service isn't free. I mean, these people can't work for free, and the buyer side licensee acknowledges that they will try to negotiate to get the seller to pay that fee. So Sherry, in reality, that's still what often happens. So the seller still pays that fee. In the end, the reason why is that not only is this traditional, but buyers cannot normally afford to pay for their own representation on top of their down payment and closing costs. They're often spread pretty thin already, but sellers can typically afford it. They have the upper hand financially in the form of equity in the property. And here, when you're buying properties at GRE marketplace, you don't have to pay any of those fees. We use a direct model without a licensee. So that's sort of the short version of the change, and why. I hope that helps sherry. It's a good question. Even licensees are struggling with the new rules.    Keith Weinhold  7:38   The next question comes from Jezebel in Yonkers, New York. Jezebel asks, what is the ideal percent down payment that I should make on a rental property? I'm trying to figure out the trade off between debt level, cash flow, leverage and risk. I'm still trying to get past the mindset that paid off property is best. All right, that's Jezebel's question, and Jezebel The short answer is that you want to make the smallest down payment possible while avoiding over leverage. Over leverage, meaning that your monthly payments are so big that you struggle to make them. Now, many investors that buy rental property, they're going to make a 20% down payment on a conventional loan for a single family rental. At last check on duplexes and up the down payment has to be at least 25% now you can make a down payment as low as 15% at least on a single family rental, although you would then be subject to an extra fee a PMI premium. Now, why would one do such a thing for the leverage? Because leverage is almost seven to one at 15% down, but you've got to balance that with a PMI premium. Run the numbers and see what works for you. Now, since you can make just a 20% down payment on a single family rental, conversely, why would you put 25% down? Your leverage position would slide from five to one down to four to one, where you can often get a slightly lower interest rate if you put 25% down. But when you run the numbers, you'll find that it's often better to maintain strong leverage and only put 20% down. Now, Jezebel, as soon as you start putting 30% down on a property that is questionable at 30% or more, because at that point you really have to start asking why the rate of return from home equity is always zero. It actually makes your risk go up, like I've discussed extensively before, with 30% down, your leverage ratio has been cut to 3.3 maybe the answer could be that 30% down is what it takes to produce. Positive cash flow, but putting 30% or more down is clearly not ideal. Think about how good we've got it as real estate investors here, for example, imagine that you're attracted to a dividend paying stock because it pays a 4% yield, unless you're borrowing on margin, you would need to make a 100% down payment to get that 4% cash on cash return from a dividend paying stock, 100% sunk into this, which isn't even a down payment anymore. That's just an outright free and clear stock purchase. Well, instead, in real estate, when you realize that property prices rise or fall in value regardless of how much equity is in a property, you don't have an incremental increase in your equity growth. It's a quantum leap. And here's what I mean. Jezebel, say you're investing 100k in real estate, that's how much you're going to put into it, and it appreciates at 5%. All right, there are two scenarios with that. Scenario A, you put that 100% down into just one 500k property, well, then you've got just a 25k gain after a year. Instead, with Scenario B, you put 20% down on five 500k properties, then you've got a 25k gain after a year, not just 5k Said another way more powerfully. Scenario A, you only got a 5% return on one property. In Scenario B, you got a 25% return on all of five properties. Wow. That's why the leverage light bulb, when that goes off, that is an incredible flex that you've got. That's why I say it is not an incremental gain in your wealth. It is a quantum leap. So I hope that some of those considerations really help temper your strategy there. Jezebel, that really helps you see how financially free beats debt free and exposes the opportunity cost of a paid off property. Thanks for the question.    Keith Weinhold  12:19   The next question comes from Ed, and he is a personal friend of mine, so he submitted this question by text message to me, but I wanted to address his question here, because I've had other people in my friend group ask me about this. It's about bonus depreciation, what it is. It's about bonus depreciation, what it is and how it works. And what's interesting here is that even those that aren't active real estate investors have been asking me about bonus depreciation. This was part of Trump's OB BBA, the one big, beautiful Bill Act that was signed into law back on the Fourth of July, and I told you about that last month, but because of all the questions about it and the lack of clarity around people's understanding of bonus depreciation, although it gets a little busy, let me give you a real world example with numbers on how bonus depreciation really works and how you can put 10s of 1000s of dollars in your pocket with it the next time you file your taxes. And by the way, my friend Ed that asked this question is a cargo pilot, so he is probably the most well traveled friend that I have. Yeah, through our chats and on social media, I often see that he's in China or Vietnam or a bunch of other places, but he lives in the US. In fact, bonus depreciation is encouraging more people that haven't even been real estate investors previously to newly invest in real estate because it is for properties acquired January, 20, 2025, or later, Trump's inauguration day for his second term or later. And I expect this to be effective for at least four years from that date. I think I mentioned that part to you a few weeks ago. All right, the property has got to be newly placed in service, not something that you bought, say, five years ago. Bonus depreciation does not apply to primary residences. We're talking about rental property, although it does apply to more than just rental property, because it can apply to property used in a business, like equipment, machinery and furniture, but within rental property, it applies to certain components of the real estate, not the building itself. That is on a regular depreciation schedule, and not the bare land. Land cannot be tax depreciated at all. All, neither through regular depreciation or bonus depreciation. You probably already know that a residential building itself can be depreciated over 27 and a half years. That works out to 3.6% of the value each year that can be depreciated or written off on your taxes, right? Well, what if there were portions of your building that you could write off faster, like over just five years, meaning 20% of their value each year you can, and others over seven years, meaning 14% of their value each year you can. And there's 15 year items as well. All right, so what if, instead of all that, you could take those five seven and 15 year components and just write them all off in the first year of ownership, so that you didn't even have to wait the five seven in 15 years, you can, you can write them all off in year one of your ownership of the property, and that is what 100% bonus depreciation is right there. That is in addition to writing off the main building over 27 and a half years. All right, with that understanding generally, let me break this down in more detail. Use an example, and that will also help reinforce what I just taught you, the components of rental property that bonus depreciation applies to, include the stuff that wears out faster than the building, and they are indoor items, appliances, flooring and cabinetry. At times, it can include HVAC systems, all right, that is written off in five to seven years. And then outdoor items known as land improvements, that includes fences, parking lots and landscaping. They're typically written off over 15 years. All right, let's look at a real world example on how this can benefit you. You can use bonus appreciation on single family rentals, duplexes, fourplexes and larger buildings. Let's use an example of an apartment building that you purchase for $1.2 million one we'll say the land value is 200k that is not depreciable. So the building, the depreciable asset, has a value of $1 million you must have performed what is called a cost segregation study in order to break down that $1 million building into those erstwhile faster depreciating components. And no, you cannot do the cost seg study yourself. You need to pay a few $1,000 to hire a Cost Segregation engineer to do this study. All right, let's look at the cost seg breakdown, the result of what he or she finds for you, let's say the personal property that's worth 150k its recovery period is five to seven years, and yes, it is eligible for bonus depreciation. Then you have the land improvements say that's another 50k over 15 years for a recovery period. And yes, it is bonus depreciation eligible. And then finally, you have the structure, or the building worth 800k It has a recovery period of 27 and a half years. No, it is not eligible for bonus depreciation, just the regular type. All right. Well, let me define more of this personal property for you here these five or seven year assets, these are what are eligible for 100% bonus depreciation in qualifying years. So we're looking inside the units, appliances like refrigerators, ovens, dishwashers, microwaves, washers and dryers, also flooring, carpet, vinyl and removable floating floors, not typically hardwood or tile, cabinetry and countertops in some cases, especially if they're not load bearing. Window treatments like blinds, drapes and curtain rods, ceiling fans and light fixtures, they've got to be detached from the structure and furniture, if it's a furnished rental, like perhaps a midterm rental or short term rental. So we're talking about things like beds, couches, in chairs and then in common areas. This five to seven year personal property includes fitness equipment in the gym, leasing office, computers, desks, chairs, clubhouse furniture or TVs, package lockers, like places where your tenants have their Amazon packages, playground equipment and trash compactors. All right, to be clear, that was all personal property that can be depreciated over five to seven years. And then there are those land improvements, the. 15 year assets also eligible for bonus depreciation, sidewalks, fencing, landscaping and irrigation, parking lots and striping, outdoor lighting, retaining walls and signage. Okay again, those are the land improvements, the 15 year items, things that are not eligible for bonus depreciation are the building structure itself, like I mentioned. That includes the roof framing, drywall foundations, and also things like elevators, structural plumbing and wiring and HVAC systems that serve the whole structure. Okay, all that stuff falls in the category of regular 27 and a half year depreciation. All right, so what is the 100% bonus depreciation effect? All right, well, your eligible amount in our example is 150k of personal property plus 50k of land improvements. That's 200k that you can deduct all in one year, rather than having to spread it over five and seven and 15 years. But all in year one of you owning the property that's 200k and again, the remaining 800k structure is depreciated over 27 and a half years. That works out to about 29k a year. This is where it gets exciting. Here we go. So your total year one depreciation, the year that you bought this asset and put it into service, with your bonus depreciation items adding up to 200k and your regular building depreciation at about 29k your total year one deduction is about $229,000 Wow, before I break that down some more and tell you about how it really helps you, let's just be really clear. How did you really get to the 200k of bonus depreciation. All right, let's say the cost segregation study allocated 80k to appliances, flooring and fixtures. Remember, they are the five to seven year items. Another 70k to common area, furniture and office equipment, that was the seven year stuff. All right, so there's 150k or personal property, and then another 50k to that outdoor stuff, the depreciable items known as land improvements, like the parking, landscaping and fencing, those 15 year items, that's how we got to 200k all bonus depreciation eligible, all fully deductible in year One under the 100% bonus depreciation rules, all right, so here it is. Here's the takeaway. You have front loaded an extra 200k of deductions in year one, and you have greatly reduced your taxable income. This is the outcome. This is the result. You just reduced it by 229k between the bonus appreciation and the regular depreciation. All right, so what is the effect of you reducing your taxable income by 229k in one year? Well, if you're in the, say, 32% tax bracket, you keep an extra $73,000 in your pocket. That's $73,000 that you would have had to send to the IRS for the next tax year. But no, you don't, and that is the power of bonus depreciation. That's how it works. Ed, and for all of you that asked about it, I know it's not that simple, and there were a lot of numbers flying around there, it got a little heavy, but that's a complete breakdown. That's why so many people are excited about the return of 100% bonus depreciation, as laid out in law with the one big, beautiful Bill Act, as you can see, it's going to help higher income people more than anyone. If you'd like to get this going and connect with GRE recommended Cost Segregation engineer, or just check and see if it's worth paying several $1,000 for the cost segregation study, we can help you with that. In fact, you might remember that I interviewed him on the show last year, and we will make that introduction for you and help ensure that you have a successful cost seg and bonus depreciation experience regardless of the size of your portfolio, even if you don't own million dollar apartment buildings. You don't have to have a huge income for this to benefit you. It just benefits those people the most. Well, you can set up a time to chat with us about that completely free of charge at GRE investment coach.com I think you know that's where you can also get a completely free strategy session about growing your overall real estate investment portfolio. You might as well do that at the same time at GRE. Investment coach.com. More next, I'm Keith Weinhold. You're listening to get rich education.    Keith Weinhold  25:07   The same place where I get my own mortgage loans is where you can get yours. Ridge lending group and MLS, 42056, they provided our listeners with more loans than anyone because they specialize in income properties, they help you build a long term plan for growing your real estate empire with leverage. Start your prequel and even chat with President Chaley Ridge personally. While it's on your mind, start at Ridge lendinggroup.com. That's Ridge lendinggroup.com.    Keith Weinhold  25:39   You know what's crazy your bank is getting rich off of you, the average savings account pays less than 1% it's like laughable. Meanwhile, if your money isn't making at least 4% you're losing to inflation. That's why I started putting my own money into the FFI liquidity fund. It's super simple. Your cash can pull in up to 8% returns, and it compounds. It's not some high risk gamble like digital or AI stock trading. It's pretty low risk because they've got a 10 plus year track record of paying investors on time in full every time. I mean, I wouldn't be talking about it if I wasn't invested myself. You can invest as little as 25k and you keep earning until you decide you want your money back, no weird lockups or anything like that. So if you're like me and tired of your liquid funds just sitting there doing nothing, check it out. Text family 266, 866, to learn about freedom family investments, liquidity fund. Again, text family to 66866,   Blair Singer  26:49   this is Rich Dad, sales advisor, Blair singer. Listen to get rich education with Keith Weinhold. And above all, don't quit your Daydream.    Keith Weinhold  27:07   welcome back to get rich Education. I'm your host, Keith Weinhold, if you have a listener question that you'd like to have answered on air, get a hold of us at get rich education.com/contact that's where you can either leave a voicemail or write in to us. I'd like to tell you the frequent guests that we have here on the show, all from the rich dad school, if you will, are going to be speaking in person at Penn State University in just a few weeks. Here it is on the 29th of this month. Yes, an event you can attend in person. It's going to be Robert Kiyosaki, Garrett Sutton and his son Ted Sutton and Tom wheelwright, the four of them speaking live and in person, sponsored by Penn State's Borrelli Institute for real estate studies. The event is named Rich Dad revealed Real Estate Wealth and wisdom. If that's of interest, look it up and check it out. From listening to the show and being a savvy investor that's inflation aware, you know that the mission is to turn a really fake asset, a conjured into existence asset, like $1 convert that into a real asset. Here is some astonishing clarity on why. That's the mission in this could leave you flabbergasted. Since 1980 The United States has one and a half times more homes, two times more gold today, and 42 times more dollars today. My gosh, that is almost laugh out loud material here. Yes, since 1980 the year that Jimmy Carter was president and Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, was the top grossing movie. The US has 56% more residential housing units today. So basically, since the year that Darth Vader told Luke Skywalker, I am your father, there are about one and a half times more homes, twice as much gold mined and brought into existence, and 42 times more dollars created out of thin air for the future, all of these trends are expected to continue at roughly the same trajectory and proportion to each other. Now, there's a reason that people use precious metals to measure inflation. It makes a particularly good measuring stick because commodities like gold, silver, platinum, palladium, rhodium and copper, they don't change over time. Unlike a car or a bottle of soda, these items are on the periodic table of the elements, an ounce of gold 1000 years ago is exactly the same. As an ounce of gold today. That's why commodities like this are such good long term inflation measuring sticks. And then there's Bitcoin, something that didn't even exist until 2009 there will only ever be 21 million of them in existence, and 95% of Bitcoins, about 20 million have already been mined into existence. So yes, only 5% more will be issued, and it's going to take about the next 100 years to do that. If bitcoins were the size of a quarter, all 21 million of them could fit inside a single shipping container. There's some fixed supply scarcity. Let's listen to this. It's about 30 seconds long, and it's called all there will ever be.   Speaker 2  30:50   Every day the Fed prints an average of $465 million that's 26,000 shipping containers a year, created out of thin air. Maybe that's why the dollar loses value over time. But there's one thing they can never print more of Bitcoin at the size of a quarter. This is all there will ever be. Shouldn't the store of value hold its value?   Keith Weinhold  31:16   That's actually a Coinbase video advertisement that we just listen to the audio of there together. Yes, what they show at the end is a shipping container where, if bitcoin were the size of a quarter, all of them that will ever exist would fit in one shipping container. And like it said, every single year, on average, the Fed prints enough dollars to fill 26,000 shipping containers, just staggering. There are so many dollars now, I'm thinking of replacing my insulation with stacks of ones. Same R value, better liquidity. Pretty soon, we won't count dollars anymore. We'll just weigh them. Welcome to the Zimbabwe starter kit. We have gone from sound money to clown money. That's another way to think of it. Oh, they say money doesn't grow on trees. That's true. It grows in spreadsheets. Now, though, one keystroke at the Fed and poof, there's another trillion just like that. Just hit the control, plus the print key. That's all it takes. All right. Well, let's take a look and see how this manifests in your life as a consumer and as a real estate investor and as a worker since January of 2020 to today, a $100,000 salary has the same buying power as 125k today. Guess over just the last five years, the dollar has lost 25% of its value, and now I'm talking in terms of the CPI here, the consumer price index. So of course, all these figures I'm using could really be higher, like we say, therefore these figures are only the inflation rate that the government is willing to admit to. How does this break down by region? So yes, we have 25% national inflation over five years, but different regions have different rates of inflation, including the region where you are, and this is due to reasons like climate and the composition of industries and even cultural preferences. For example, a southern climate with a lot of air conditioner use spends more on electricity. So if electricity costs are high there, then that region's inflation rate could be higher than that of a northern climate. A place like Omaha, Nebraska is proximous to a lot of agricultural crops and beef, but a place far from where those items are sourced could be more sensitive to changes in beef prices or less sensitive. So over the past five years, here's how much annual inflation in these select cities have experienced again, per the CPI from lowest to highest San Francisco is just 3.3% per year. So in San Fran your 100k salary in 2020 would need to be almost 118k today just to maintain purchasing power. New York City, 3.9% annual inflation over the last five years. Chicago, 4.2% Philly, 4.3 Seattle is at 4.8 Dallas, Fort Worth 4.9 St Louis, 5% Atlanta, 5.1 Miami, 5.4 we're really getting up there now. Phoenix, 5.9 San Diego, 6.1 and the major. Major city with the highest inflation rate over the past five years is Tampa, Florida, at 6.4% annually, Tampa's had some of the highest real estate appreciation over the past five years as well. So this means that a 100k salary five years ago in Tampa would have to be 128k today just to maintain purchasing power due to its 28% cumulative inflation the past five years. But that's the CPI. The real figure could be 40% plus in Tampa. All right, now this information is useful, because even if you believe that the CPI is understated, which most everyone that's looked at it does, as long as the methodology is consistent, you can see the regional variation here. Again, San Francisco was lowest at 3.3 Tampa about double at 6.4% the ever present force of inflation. It's merely surreptitious, until you have a big wave of it peaking in 2022 that everyone noticed. Let's look at how it's contributed to the real estate price run up since 2020 All right, so in the first quarter of this century, you might find this unbelievable in itself, in the year 2000 the median priced Florida home was 195k I mean, that's the median price. Then the investor sweet spot is usually lower than that. It might have been 130k in Florida in the year 2000 so again, 195k in Florida for the median home price as recently as 2000 today, it is 412k gosh, almost as surprising in Texas, It was just 153k in 2000 and it's 338k now, I mean, don't these prices like 153k in Texas, make it seem like the price for a dog house already, New York, 276k up to 576k Also from the year 2000 to today, Washington, DC, 293k up to 643k Colorado, 377, up to 582k Florida, more than doubling 393, up to 833 And Washington State also more than doubling 313k up to 630k my gosh, price increases like this. They're a function of both monetary inflation and appreciation, and it's really a chief reason that the Fed has not cut interest rates this year. It's because the memory of soaring inflation is still much too recent.     Keith Weinhold  38:05   To review what you've learned on this week's episode. Changes to realtor fees have made less industry impact than many expected. The smaller your down payment, the more powerful your leverage fulcrum. The return of 100% bonus depreciation has many investors, and even non investors, interested in adding income property to their portfolio, and staggering inflation is a motivator for adding real assets to your life. Hey, if you would, I would love it, and it would mean the world to me. If you found this episode valuable enough that you would share it with a friend. I put a lot of thought into it, just like I do every single week, friends are probably going to find explanations about realtor fees and bonus depreciation highly helpful this week, you can either share the episode by word of mouth or take a screenshot of this episode and put it on your social media. You might want to write out that it's get rich education in your social posts, because it only shows GRE on our podcast, cover image in some views. Thanks for telling a friend about the show. Until next week, I'm your host. Keith Weinhold, don't quit your Daydream.   Unknown Speaker  39:23   nothing on this show should be considered specific, personal or professional advice. Please consult an appropriate tax, legal, real estate, financial or business professional for individualized advice. Opinions of guests are their own. Information is not guaranteed. All investment strategies have the potential for profit or loss. The host is operating on behalf of get rich Education LLC exclusively.   Keith Weinhold  39:47   You know, whenever you want the best written real estate and finance info, oh, geez, today's experience limits your free articles access and it's got paywalls and pop ups and push Notes. Vacations and cookies, disclaimers, it's not so great. So then it's vital to place nice, clean, free content into your hands that adds no hype value to your life. That's why this is the golden age of quality newsletters. And I write every word of ours myself. It's got a dash of humor, and it's to the point because even the word abbreviation is too long, my letter usually takes less than three minutes to read, and when you start the letter, you also get my one hour fast real estate video course, it's all completely free. It's called The Don't quit your Daydream. Letter. It wires your mind for wealth, and it couldn't be easier for you to get it right now. Just text gre to 66866, while it's on your mind, take a moment to do it right now. Text gre to 66866   Keith Weinhold  41:02   The preceding program was brought to you by your home for wealth building, getricheducation.com.

When a murder is committed in the City of St. Louis, it usually doesn't get solved. An investigation by St. Louis Public Radio, APM Reports and the Marshall Project found that detectives solved fewer than half of the nearly 2,000 homicides committed in the past decade. While these cases are unsolved, the victims of these crimes should not be forgotten. Ivy Scott, engagement reporter for The Marshall Project-St.Louis, discusses her findings from multiple interviews with the families of homicide victims. We also meet Erica Jones, mother of Whitney Brown, who was shot and killed on August 13, 2015 in an unsolved homicide.

Text a Message to the ShowWelcome to the Daily ICPC; My name is Jared Altic, and I'm a chaplain with the police department.  This is a limited podcast series from Hey Chaplain, which follows police chaplains Jared Altic and Ward Jenkins to Little Rock, Arkansas to attend the annual training seminar of the ICPC, the international conference of police chaplains.  This series will provide a daily, behind the scenes look at the convention, and this is our after-action review episode, which brings this mini-series to it's conclusion. A segment of I-49 is named after John Paul Hammerschmidt, the tunnel is named after Bobby Hopper and opened in 1999.Follow the Daily ICPC on Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/heychaplainpodcast/Music is by Chris HaugenThe Daily ICPC Introductory Episode, MS.1.6Tags:Chaplains, Airports, Banks, Classes, Conventions, Death Notifications, Food, Friends, IACP, ICPC, LAPD, Liaisons, Nostalgia, Police, Ride Alongs, Training, Travel, Kansas City, St Louis, Arkansas, Kansas, MissouriSupport the showThanks for Listening! And, as always, pray for peace in our city.Subscribe/Follow here: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hey-chaplain/id1570155168 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2CGK9A3BmbFEUEnx3fYZOY Email us at: heychaplain44@gmail.comYou can help keep the show ad-free by buying me a virtual coffee!https://www.buymeacoffee.com/heychaplain

New episode of Cubs On Tap. Join Joey as he recaps the Cardinals series and looks ahead to the Blue Jays series. SUPPORT THE SHOW! Purchase your Chicago Cubs shirts from ⁠OBVIOUS SHIRTS⁠. USE CODE: ONTAPSPORTS for 10% OFF your purchase!Cubs On Tap is presented by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠OnTapSportsNet.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, your go-to source for Cubs news⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, analysis, and updates.Follow us on social media: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@CubbiesOnTap⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@OnTapSportsNet⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Dennis Hancock, St. Louis County Councilman kicks off his campaign for County Executive tonight

For the second year in a row, we were back at the St. Louis RPM in Collinsville, Illinois. ATLP host Ray Arnott made his rounds, talking to numerous attendees of the show and learning why they made the trek out to the midwest to partake in this outstanding event. In part two, we talk to Scott Thornton, Kevin Tully from TullyModels.com, Model Railroad News' Shane Mason, Nick Santo from NixTrainz, Curtis Koch from Broadway Limited, Tony Sissons, Radisson McGuire, Oak Hill Model Railroad Supply's Jeff Otto, Rob from Harrisburg, Marty from Ohio, Matt Forcum and we wrap up the episode with the cruise director, Matthew Freix.Learn more about this episode on our website:aroundthelayout.com/176Thank you to our episode sponsor, Oak Hill Model Railroad Track Supply:https://ohrtracksupply.com/Thank you to our episode sponsor, ScaleSigns.com:https://scalesigns.com/Thank you to our episode sponsor, 18Ten Designs:https://www.1810designs.com/

Matt Farrell, US Figure Skating CEO, joins Tom Ackerman. What can St Louisans expect when the UK Figure Skating Championships come to Enterprise Center in January, 2026?

Sahadev Sharma checks-in from St. Louis before the Cubs finale vs Cardinals (Hour 4) full 2464 Sun, 10 Aug 2025 17:43:17 +0000 x6XamShla5gyLYHISIjThJVjREFAT9jI sports Hit & Run with Matt Spiegel sports Sahadev Sharma checks-in from St. Louis before the Cubs finale vs Cardinals (Hour 4) Hit & Run is a Chicago baseball staple, airing Sundays at 9 a.m. on 670 The Score during the MLB season. 2024 © 2021 Audacy, Inc. Sports False https://

On this week's Defense & Aerospace Report Business Roundtable, sponsored by Bell, Dr. “Rocket” Ron Epstein of Bank of America Securities, and Richard Aboulafia of the AeroDynamic advisory consultancy join host Vago Muradian to discuss another up week on Wall Street even as President Trump escalated his trade war leveraging America's economic power to force nations that haven't yet agreed to baseline tariffs to do so, including on Switzerland impacting the gold market; after Washington slapped heavy tariffs on India to sanction New Delhi for buying Russian oil — as part of a drive to pressure Moscow to end the Ukraine war — India's defense minister cancelled his visit to Washington as news reports suggested US arms purchases may be in jeopardy; the claim by India's air chief, Air Chief Marshall AP Singh, that the country's Russian-made S-400 surface-to-air missiles downed five Pakistani fighters and a large aircraft that was downed at a range of 300 kilometers; how long it will take to resolve the strike by Boeing's St Louis machinists a week after rejecting the company's contract offer; Spain's decision for more Eurofighters rather than the short takeoff and vertical landing variant of the F-35 Lighting II to replace aging Harrier jump jets for its carriers; the partnership by L3Harris and Joby Aviation to develop autonomous hybrid vertical takeoff and landing aircraft for military applications; and what to expect from the meeting between Trump and Russia's Vladimir Putin in Alaska next week as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rejects the American president's suggestion Kyiv cede territory for peace.

Joe Pott fills in for Tom Ackerman on Sports on a Sunday Morning to cover the inaugural U12 Icebreaker Tournament at the Centene Community Ice Center, showcasing girls' tier one ice hockey teams from across the country. Randy Gersh discusses the event's success, highlighting team-building activities, nutrition education, and a festival featuring Olympic gold medalists. He also details the remarkable growth of girls' hockey in St. Louis, with over 1,200 participants, and shares upcoming youth programs and community initiatives like Celly with the Blues and Blues and Brews.

Tom Ackerman talks with Matt Farrell about the 2026 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, scheduled for January 5–11 in St. Louis. The competition will be held at the Enterprise Center and the Centene Community Ice Center, featuring events in women's, men's, pairs, ice dance, junior levels, as well as novice pairs and ice dance. This championship serves as a key qualifier for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina. Farrell highlights the unique blend of athleticism and artistry in figure skating, the relatability of the athletes, and reflects on the community's resilience following a recent plane crash. Tickets for single sessions go on sale starting September 10.

St. Louis City SC coach Lutz Pfannenstiel reviews one of the team's most complete performances this season in their 3-1 win over Nashville SC. He discusses key moments such as a tough penalty call on goalkeeper Roman Bürki and the impact of new signing Fallou Fall alongside Baumgartel. Eduard Löwen's influence on the pitch is highlighted as the team balances winning now with developing young talent for the future. Lutz emphasizes the importance of players proving themselves, maintaining squad health, and the vital role of MLS Next Pro for young player development. He also praises St. Louis' outstanding football culture and the club's commitment to nurturing homegrown players.

Chicago Cubs vs. St Louis Cardinals MLB Pick Prediction by Tony T. Cubs at Cardinals 7PM ET—Shota Imanaga gets the start for Chicago. Imanaga has sixteen starts posting an ERA of 3.12 with WHIP of 1.00. The left hander fans 19.8% with 4.8% walks. Ground balls served at 27.9% with 1.61 home runs per nine innings. A FIP of 4.47. Sonny Gray makes the start for St Louis. Gray in 23 starts has an ERA of 4.21 with WHIP of 1.17. The veteran strikes out 26.8% with 4% walks. Grounders dealt at 41.1% with 1.12 home runs per nine innings.

Willi Castro calls in from St. Louis, Chris Getz talks White Sox's future (Hour 2) full 2788 Sat, 09 Aug 2025 17:26:36 +0000 HwOaPCdidRZT5XDTMqrgAFrHPu4j0w1I sports Inside The Clubhouse sports Willi Castro calls in from St. Louis, Chris Getz talks White Sox's future (Hour 2) Bruce Levine and David Haugh host Inside the Clubhouse, discussing the latest Cubs, White Sox and MLB storylines while also welcoming on great guests from across the baseball landscape. 2024 © 2021 Audacy, Inc. Sports False https://pl

Chicago Cubs vs. St Louis Cardinals MLB Pick Prediction by Tony T. Cubs at Cardinals 7:15PM ET—Collin Rea will start for Chicago. Rea appeared in 23 games carrying an ERA of 4.23 with WHIP of 1.32. The right hander fans 16.9% with 6.2% walks. Ground balls served at 38% with 1.55 home runs per nine innings. Andre Pallante is starting for St Louis. Pallante in 22 starts delivers an ERA of 4.57 with WHIP of 1.32. The right hander strikes out 15.4% with 7.7% walks. Ground balls dished at 60.6% with 1.11 home runs per nine innings.

Mary Katharine Ham, Fox News Contributor, Outkick columnist, and co-author of End of Discussion (@mkhammer), broke down Israel's recent announcement that they will "occupy" Gaza, and Guy and MK speculated that the term "occupy" might be intentionally inflammatory and is a strategic move to set Israel up for a concession in future negotiations. MKH also called out Zohran Mamdani and the broader left for refusing to address antisemitism, even in clear cases like the under-covered St. Louis attack where cars were vandalized and burned. Mary Katharine also discussed the hidden radicalism of Abigail Spanberger, who brands herself as a moderate but dodged questions on transgender policies. Finally, the pair pushed back on The New York Times' absurd claim that the right invented the Sydney Sweeney jeans ad controversy, despite the left fueling the outrage on outlets like the TODAY show. Listen to the full interview below! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Matt Spiegel and Laurence Holmes were joined by former MLB catcher Bengie Molina to preview the Cubs-Cardinals series in St. Louis this weekend.

In the third hour, David Haugh was joined by Cubs Radio analyst Ron Coomer to preview the team's series at the St. Louis Cardinals this weekend. Later, Mike Palm of Circa Sports joined the show to discuss the exciting news about the Circa Survivor contest.

Find out where Scott Jagow is roaming this week.

In this episode, we discuss the Cardinals placing Nolan Arenado on the IL and the return of a red-hot Nolan Gorman. We break down the trade deadline moves, including deals involving Steven Matz and Phil Maton, and wonder why the team held onto their lefty bats. With several new arms in the bullpen, we talk about what to expect from the reshuffled pitching staff. We preview the upcoming homestand against the Cubs and Rockies, and ask the important questions—like whether it's time for JJ Wetherholt and time up for Garret Hampson. Plus, we cover a wild week of league news, including Jen Pawol making history and the Padres acquiring half the league.Have a question or comment for the show? Text or leave us a voicemail at: (848) 48-BIRDS (848-482-4737)Talking About Birds is listener supported on Patreon. Support the show and join our private discord server at: www.patreon.com/talkingaboutbirds.Ask ChatGPT

Send us a textBall Watching host, Justin Graham, previews St. Louis CITY SC's upcoming home match against Nashville SC!Follow the show on X and/or Instagram (@BallWatchingSTL)! Find our guest interviews and all episodes in video form on YouTube by searching https://www.youtube.com/@ballwatchingSTL. Be sure to hit subscribe and turn notifications on!Hoffmann Brothers is the 2025 presenting sponsor of Ball Watching! Headquartered right here in St. Louis for over 40 years, Hoffmann Brothers is a full-service residential & commercial provider, providing Heating, Air Conditioning, Plumbing, Drains, Sewer, Water Heaters, Duct Cleaning, Electrical and Appliance Repair services. Visit them online at hoffmannbros.com!Make The Pitch Athletic Club & Tavern (thepitch-stl.com) your St. Louis CITY SC pregame and postgame destination for all your food and drink needs! Tell them your friends at Ball Watching sent you... Seoul Juice is the official drink of Ball Watching and made with three clean simple ingredients: water, organic lemon juice, and Korean pear juice. Get yours at Dierbergs, Sams Club, or online at seouljuice.com. Use code "BALLWATCHING" at checkout for 20% off all online orders!Shop in-store or online at Series Six (seriessixcompany.com) and receive a 15% discount on all orders storewide using code "BALLWATCHING" at checkout!

In this episode of the IC-DISC show, I sit down with Ronak Shah to discuss his transition from a corporate career at Intel to entering the scrap metal business, to founding a successful scrap metal business in New Caney, Texas. We talk about the motivation behind his career shift and the mentors who guided him along the way. Ronak opens up about the challenges he faced while transitioning from a large corporate environment to a smaller, more hands-on business. We also explore Ronak's decision to sell his business and the unexpected opportunities that arose from that choice. He reflects on the experiences gained throughout his career, emphasizing the importance of taking calculated risks and adapting to change. His story offers insights into the value of connecting past experiences to current ventures, even when the path isn't always straightforward. Finally, we discuss navigating today's fast-paced digital world and the importance of maintaining a low profile on social media. Ronak's journey highlights the balance between professional growth and personal fulfillment, making this episode a thoughtful exploration of entrepreneurship and resilience.     SHOW HIGHLIGHTS I explore Ronak's remarkable transition from a corporate role at Intel to establishing a successful scrap industry business in New Caney, Texas, emphasizing his desire for more tangible work and the influence of key mentors. The episode delves into Ronak's career progression at Schnitzer Steel and Alter Trading, where he gained critical insights in non-ferrous recovery and learned the importance of agile, smaller teams in driving technological advancements. Through journaling and introspection, Ronak clarifies his professional desires, leading to the creation of Levitated Metal and reflecting on personal challenges, including his late wife's battle with cancer. We discuss the financial strategies Ronak utilized in his entrepreneurial ventures, such as leveraging IC-DISC tax advantages and aligning financial decisions with personal values. The conversation highlights Ronak's leadership insights, his decision to pursue a smaller business for personal fulfillment, and the impact of selling his business on both his professional and personal life. Ronak shares reflections on his entrepreneurial journey, touching on the lessons learned from his career, the importance of taking risks, and the role of hindsight in connecting the dots of his experiences. The episode concludes with a discussion on navigating the complexities of the modern digital landscape and the importance of maintaining a low profile in a rapidly changing social media environment.   Contact Details LinkedIn - Ronak Shah (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronakshahpdx/) LINKSShow Notes Be a Guest About IC-DISC Alliance About Levitated Metals Ronak ShahAbout Ronak TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Dave: Hi Ronak, how are you today? Roank: Good David, Nice to see you again. Dave: Likewise, and where are you calling into from? Where are you in the world at the moment? Roank: I'm at my factory in New Caney, Texas, just a little bit northeast of Houston Great. Dave: Now are you a native Houstonian. Roank: I'm not, so I moved out here in 2019 to build this factory and start this business. I think I've been to Houston once in the prior year to visit for the first time and never before, other than perhaps through the airport. So, I didn't know a lot about Houston. I'm not saying that I know a lot about Houston now, but it's been a great place to build a business. It's been a fine place for my kids to grow up. Dave: It's been good it's been a fine place for my kids to grow up. It's still good. Yeah, it's. Uh, it's kind of a, it's kind of a hidden gem in a lot of ways. Uh, you know houston is, it's got a lot going for it that if your only experience is just driving through town or going through the airport, you know, I mean you hear traffic, humidity, heat, urbanl and you're just kind of like, you know, yeah, it doesn't sound like my kind of place. Roank: Yeah, well, it would be a lot more believable if you did not have a Breckenridge background behind you. Dave: True, yeah, that is the Breckenridge background for sure. So where did you grow up then, if you didn't grow up in Houston? Roank: I grew up in upstate New York so my dad was one of the many immigrants that came over in the late 60s, early 70s. They were looking for people with medical training and background. So he came over from India, lived in New York. I was born in New York City but very soon after grew up in the middle of the Finger Lakes. We moved to Syracuse when I was in middle school and then I went to Boston for undergraduate and I bounced kind of between Boston and London and back to Boston, then to Portland, oregon, which is where I came into the scrap industry and lived for some time in St Louis. I lived there for about nine years and from St Louis to here. Dave: Okay. So what made you get into the scrap business if you didn't have a family history in it? Roank: Yeah, it was just very random, my interest in the scrap industry. I think, the truth of the answer is probably the more interesting one. So after mba I was working, I was an operations guy and I was working at intel corporation in portland, near portland oregon, and loved being in portland. It's a fine place to live. But intel was, I mean, a huge company, right, 80 000 people, and just like the process of making something that was about this big, the the size of the core diet, multiprocessor, microprocessor this wasn't sufficiently interesting to me and I was too far from it, as well as my chain organization. Yeah. It didn't feel tangible enough, and so that was one part of it. But then the other part of it as well was you know I was there as a worker bee, you know, in a reasonably senior job for someone of my age, but then, you know, in a reasonably senior job for someone of my age, but then you know intel was having difficulty. So they bring in bane and company to kind of work on strategy or whatever and so two of the guys that I went to school with that, I knew well, were like literally working literally seven layers in the organization above me, and I'm like what? and so I just hit that, I tapped out, I extracted, I was like this is just some horse crap. I, this isn't the place for me. I need to go somewhere where I'm, you know, in a, in a smaller pod, where I can really touch and feel a thing. And so I just started throwing resumes out and wound up at Schnitzer Steel. Now really, yeah, and oh really. Yeah, and it was great. It was a time of transition for Schnitzer. I don't know if it was a great transition time for Schnitzer. They were transitioning from an older style scrap company to a more professional slash corporate company of the style that it is today. So they had parts of the parts of their business were both things and for sure I liked the old thing a lot and just tons of fun being in places like Boston and Portland scrapyard when they were building big mega shredders and new factories and driving the continuous improvement process there and trying to get metrics around things. It was really a good time. I enjoyed a lot of it. I came to Alter Trading in 2010 and that was wonderful right, I owe so much of my career everything I learned everything to the team at Alter, to Jay Rabinovitz and Rob and Michael Goldstein. I learned a lot there. I did a lot of really fun stuff for them that helped transform the company into the highly successful privately owned scrap company it is today. Dave: Like on the technology side, correct yeah. Roank: So I built a few factories, non-ferrous recovery plants to process not steel non-ferrous portions of the shredder and extract more metals out of stuff that would otherwise have gone to the landfill. And it was you know, exciting to do that, and it wasn't just building the factories but really growing out the entirety of the division that became, you know, a kind of center of excellence around that function, and it's an area that you know Alter remains very strong in today. Dave: Okay, well, I am excited to get into the next part of your story. So you're living in St Louis, working at Alter, being involved in some cool stuff and forward thinking technology. So how did from there? How do you end up starting a company in New Caney, texas? Roank: Yeah, so it's no reason not to be as open and honest about it as possible. So Alter was amazing. For the first six or seven years I was there, the job was like a nine and a half out of 10. I remember I was in New York going to make this time up sometime in 2013 or something like that. I've been there for three years and the Powerball was like some huge number, like a billion dollars, and so me and some buddies that were in finance, we all bought Powerball tickets and we talked about what we would do if we won the money, and I remember I determined to say I don't know if I would necessarily quit my job, right, like I really love what I do. I still think about that today. Dave: Did any of them have the same thought? Roank: No, they thought I was just completely crazy and they weren't necessarily wrong. I think I think perhaps again I loved it, but the point of it is I really enjoyed it. It was fulfilling, I had impact, things were changing. All of that when I struggled is as that phase of what Alter needed ended and I needed to move and assist alter with other things, primarily helping them grow a tier of management that had come from the art management level into being the next business leaders of the company. Just, you know, it's kind of standard transition planning type stuff and succession planning. I struggled with doing that successfully, a role that perhaps would have been viable or successful or satisfactory for me to do had it occurred during a standard line management. You know, hierarchical management structure was hard for me to find value in fulfillment, in and I would say success in doing. Yeah, as a matrix manager, you know, as a, as a guide, as a internal consultant. I just didn't love it. I hate to put it that way. I just sure, sure and at the same time, alter was going through a certain amount of a a ton of growth, right, a lot of growth that I participated in through acquisition and internal growth as well disbanded organic growth. But it was going through a lot of growth and so the company that felt small and familial at 40 yards suddenly felt just large and 70 for me. Dave: Too much like it felt too much like Intel. Roank: Nowhere near that level. There's nothing like that. It remains a really effective, well-directed company today. But, it felt different for me and I also realized that I wasn't good at that bigger company stuff. You know, my way of thinking about things didn't scale successfully to that level. I would not be the right guy at that level and this is an unfortunate thing to say. But I chose to. I did not want to change. You know, I thought about so. My boss for many years there was Jay Rabinowitz, who was, until he retired recently, the CEO of Alter Trade. He was fascinating. His ability to grow into the mindset required, the management rank that he was in at the time, or growing into, was phenomenal. And so a guy that if you only knew him 30 years ago was a rough and tumble scrap guy was and you've seen him on podcasts and things like that. It became and presents fully as and fills the shoes of a methodical, thoughtful, mature and a CEO who does a great job of leading A 1,200, 1,500 person organization. You would have never thought that if you only knew him 25 years ago perhaps, but his ability to grow was really phenomenal. For, by choice or by capability or whatever it was, I did not have or want that and so I wanted something dramatically smaller. Dave: Okay. Roank: And so I spent a bunch of time not just thinking about it but literally journaling about it. Because when you just think about these type of problems in your mind like hey, what do I want to do professionally? Yeah, you can just ping pong in your brain. And what I found helped me through the process was writing it down. And if you remember, back in high school, your English teacher would tell you to you know write a draft of the story, or an outline, and then a draft and then the final essay. I mean, I don't know about you, but I would never do any of that crap. But I did this time and I found that, like the first draft was, you know, just vomit on a page of orally thought out concepts and beliefs. And so I wrote it again and it was clear. And I wrote it again, it was clear. It helped me really understand what I liked and didn't like and what I wanted and didn't want from the next phase. And it was a time when, you know, my kids were just about to graduate middle school. If I was ever going to leave St Louis, this was the time to do it. It was not going to be easy. It was not easy for them to leave St Louis, but that's when. That's how I made that choice. I was uncertain as to what I would do. Right, I was out there both looking at shredder yards to buy as well as businesses. To start, I looked at a wire chopping plant. I ultimately built a heavy media plant. I did look at and made successful offers on a couple of different shredders, but none of that actually panned out and in the end I raised a bunch of money, moved out to Houston, built this thing. Dave: That is a great story and your kids ended up adjusting okay to, because I believe you live in one of the really nice master plan communities around Houston. Roank: Yeah, and they've adjusted well. I think my son is glad that we moved down here. My daughter is a little bit on the fence, but she was younger when we moved. Both my wife my late wife and I in many ways would have probably preferred where we lived in. Dave: St Louis, it was a small town in Kirkwood. Roank: You're familiar with it, but here it's been great. The Woodlands is a, you know, magical little bubble of a place to live. It's got everything you need. It's 25 minutes to the factory. All of it has been, from that perspective, just fine. When my wife got cancer, we were right here at MD Anderson. You know a lot of that stuff worked out. Dave: That is great. So tell me what your business premise was for Levitated Metal. So maybe give just a little background. What does the company do? Roank: Sure, so we're a heavy media flotation platform. What we do is we buy a thing called Sorba and we make aluminum Twitch. But stepping back from that to people that don't know what any of those words mean, our suppliers are the largest scrap metal processors in the region. Right, the states who will buy something like an old 2008 ford 500 sedan that's at the end of its life, yeah, shred it into fist size and smaller pieces, extract all the steel out with a magnet and then extract all the other metals like aluminum from the engine, copper, brass zinc, die, cast through other technologies. That aluminum, copper, brass zinc all is mixed up together in little pieces in a giant pile and that product is called a made up word Zorba by the industry. They make lots of it inside of houston. probably 15 million pounds to 18 million pounds of it is made every month right I buy that it's useless the way it is because you can't melt it, because it's got too many different types of metals in it and it doesn't make a useful alloy. But if you can get the aluminum out, that aluminum is super valuable because that aluminum you know used to be the engine block of a old car. It's a pretty tight chemistry match to the alloy required for the engine block of a ford f-150 a 2005. So through a density flotation process using water and ferrosilicon, we can change the density of that water so we can actually float the aluminum out. Dave: Hence the name levitated. Roank: Yeah, it's not a novel technology. I buy the equipment from some dude in Italy. There are well over 100 of these kind of plants in the world, maybe a little less than a dozen when levitators started up in the united states and a very what it sounds like a simple process is a royal pain in the rear. That actually managed because it's a very analog system with all sorts of weird chemistry and other things involved and a challenging plant to rot. But you know, we do a pretty decent job of it. Dave: Now, why did you pick New Caney, texas? I've been to St Louis, in fact, I was just there last month. They appear to have plenty of land around that place, you know, especially across the river in uh, is that illinois? That's just east so why? Didn't you just buy some land and do it up there? Roank: so where these plants, where the competitive plants exist, are relatively close to where their consumers, the aluminum smelters that would buy the recycled aluminum, are, and that's generally already in that area. So there are plenty of plants in that area. Dave: Okay. Roank: Down here in Houston. What was the case when I chose to move down here it became very quickly not the case, because two other people also built plants was that there was a large market in Mexico that did not have access to this type of material because there were no media plants in Texas or along the Mexican border. And aluminum manufacture in Mexico was growing incredibly well, much like the rest of their economy, and so what I saw was a consumer need right mexican heavy media plants, a set of suppliers in the texas area that did not have a domestic buyer for their zorba and so good supplier footprint and, at the time, a relative lack of competition. But I didn't realize. So, like two months after the financial raise was done and everything like that was, there were in fact, two more plants that were in the process of being built. They both started, you know, six to 12 months after mine did not so far away. There's one up near dallas, there's one up in arkansas so it became a little bit more competitive, though in truth that has not really changed the calculus on anything in a great way. It hasn't really improved the deal too much. Dave: Okay, and it was you started with, just a green field, right? Roank: Yeah, it was some trees and dirt and 10 acres. It was some trees and dirt and 10 acres and I started with dirt work and stormwater and concrete and buildings and equipment and built the whole thing. Dave: What year did you? Roank: start COVID 2020. Oh, it was the heck of a time. Dave: That was the construction was during COVID yeah. And when did you open? Roank: Then we started processing. At the end of December we shipped our first 2020 and we started shipping material in full January 2021. Dave: Oh wow, that really was in the midst of COVID. It was Most of it wasn't? Roank: that big a deal. There was some delay in equipment delivery because it came from Italy, and so if anybody had a rougher time COVID wise, it was Italy. So it came from Italy, and so if anybody had a rougher time COVID-wise, it was Italy. So it came from Italy but that might have only cost us a couple months. What was really frustrating and challenging and ultimately we were able to get through it was simply the difficulty of bringing process experts from Europe to the US during the COVID timeline. You know, like I can't tell you how many voicemails I left at the US embassy in Milan to sorry the US consulate in Milan to try to, you know, accelerate the review of the visa for the texts to come in from Italy, but I can tell you how many times somebody probably listened to it with zero, so just a royal pain in the rear. You know, just because the pain in the rear to get that all done, it got done. But those were challenging times. Dave: So started January of 2021 and, uh, at the time, had you given any thought to how long you might want to, that you and your investor group might want to run the business or own the business? Did you have any thought when you started it about what I honestly thought? I? Roank: would run it and own it for like nearly 10, 15 years years and grow it over time and continue to be in the space, et cetera, et cetera. It was meant to be a longer term cashflow, not one necessarily built on an exit strategy of selling at some point in the future. That was the original intent. Dave: How did that-year plan end up working out for you? Roank: Well, it turned out to be much shorter than that. So, as it turned out, in 2023, we had an unsolicited offer from Murfrees Industries to purchase the business assets. Dave: Wow, just two years later. Roank: Yeah, two years of operation later. Yeah, and for a number of reasons, it was the right choice for me and my investors to do the sale and it's been absolutely phenomenally good, I think, for both sides. The transaction itself, you know, from my perspective, great because you know it was an accelerated exit, but an exit nevertheless, and it still gives me the opportunity to continue to do the same job in the same office every day that I really enjoy doing that. I find great fulfillment and mental stimulation and sense of purpose in without the undeniable and underestimated stress of being a business owner. Dave: Yeah. Roank: So that's been absolutely great. It occurred at a time when my wife was battling cancer and took a lot of stress off. Taking that business stress off the table Sure Just made it easier to get through that entire process. Yeah, and it's just been a good. I think it's been fun for everybody. You know Adam and Michael Mervis were the you know fourth generation. Perhaps Adam and Michael Mervis we're the fourth generation perhaps owners of Mervis Industries enjoy having the levitated team in their company. We enjoy being part of it. Both of us have to do better together. It's been really just great. Dave: That is awesome, because not all transactions work out that well. Roank: Yeah, I'm sure there's some number out there that I would have sold the company at, knowing full well that I would not have wanted to work there afterwards. I'm sure there is, but I'm glad I didn't have to. Dave: Because you were I'm guessing you were the. Were you a minority shareholder? Did your? I was a minority shareholder. Roank: Oh, you were the majority, okay. Dave: So it was ultimately your call Correct and your but the the deal clicked, checked all the boxes and and were your investors disappointed that they were going to lose their cash flowing business. Roank: No, they were very pleased with the cash they got all up front. They were fine. That is great. Coincidentally, I did this math when we were doing the sale. I think that the net result of it was the same. Dave: IRR or plus or minus one within 1% of the IRR. Roank: That was in the financial presentation for the business itself. Really, yeah, very unexpected. Yeah, again, nothing more than a coincidence yeah what do you, what do you enjoy most? enjoy the most about the business is building and growing things. What I have realized is that is not sufficient to be a great leader. Right, there's building and growing things. A great leader right, there's building and growing things. But there's also all the other things that a leader should gain and find value in a business that I'm just not personally built to enjoy nearly as much. Right, I enjoy growing the skillset for the people that work for me. I enjoy seeing them be successful, but I don't think I enjoy it as much as I really should, or that a leader really should. In many ways, I think what I've discovered is I almost enjoy being an individual contributor more than. I enjoy being a leader and in in many ways, that's why I enjoy being at such a small company. Right, yeah, here the leadership I have to do is very direct. It's in the office, with people that are no more than 15 feet away from me right now. It's a very old style of working. You, you know, I have one remote employee and thank God she is very self-directed and capable and intelligent and proactive about reaching out to me, because otherwise she would be really disappointed and I would suck at that job. And so when we talk about you know what do we like about the job? I enjoy the improving of things. I enjoy the new thing to be done. That is not as much of it's not that much of running a business as you would want it to be. Sure, it's not like about a small business, though are just the variety of stuff I get to do I wear slightly fewer hats now than I did before the acquisition, but I was the CFO. I was, unfortunately, the lead IT guy, even though portions of these functions were outsourced as well. I sold all the metals. Having never sold a pound of metal in my life prior to levitated metals, I sold all the amount and then I was the president. I was the lead on any plant improvement projects of great size that we had again support throughout the organization on all these little pieces. But that's a lot of little hats to wear okay, okay. That a bigger company would have a head underneath every one of those hats. Sure, so I enjoy being able to do the breadth of those activities. I think it's rare that people can do the breadth of those activities. You and I talk about ICDIS stuff all the time and I would wager at a level that maybe less than five company owners that you interact with are able to discuss the situation. Is that probably correct, or am I? I think it's probably less than three yeah. Dave: And I can't think of who the other two are, so you might be in a class of your own. Roank: Yeah, I enjoy that thing right when I think about things that I would have been in a different life. Perhaps tax accountant could be one of those. But man, this is a very different life than tax accountant. Dave: Yeah for sure I think you made the right call. Well, as we're kind of rounding the home stretch, I've just got a few more questions. One is when you were leaving Intel, if you had a time machine, or maybe right after you left Intel and you had a time machine that you could go back and have a conversation with the younger Ronak 20 years ago, what might you have told yourself? What advice might you have had? Roank: or wisdom that you might've wanted to share. I don't think I would've shared anything. Dave: No, wouldn't want to, but I would've wanted that. Roank: With the exception my wife's death, there is not a single thing that I would have changed that is a you're. Dave: I asked that question on my guest and you're probably the only one who's ever answered it that way. Roank: So I would say, yeah, what type of things do people say? Oh, you know the number one, because I'm not just saying that because I don't want to watch other podcasts, I just yeah, well, no, I can give give you the rundown. Dave: The most common answer is they wish they would have taken a risk sooner. They wish they would have started their company sooner. They wish they'd been more willing to take a chance. Now, granted, many of my guests are self-made first-generation entrepreneurs like you know, are, you know, self-made first generation entrepreneurs like you are meaning? You know they formed the company, but some of them may have worked at other companies. In hindsight they realize, oh, I should have done this five years sooner, you know it. Just, it would have only been better if I'd done it five years. That's kind of. The most common answer is just, they wish they'd played it less safe. You know, they wish they'd taken, you know, more risks in college. They wish they. That's kind of the most. But that one is consistent with what most people say near the end of their life they don't regret the things they did, they regret the things they didn't do. So that tends to be the answer. But that, to me, is a really good. That's a really good answer for somebody who's pretty content with where their life is. Roank: Yeah, other than you know your wife, obviously, and I see what everybody else describes, but I feel that everything I did, I was learning something that became foundationally valuable. Dave: Yeah. Roank: You know there was a period of time I got laid off from Schnitzer in early 2009. And I didn't start up at Alter Trading until, you know, about a year later. But I did some consulting in the middle for a wonderful company, Steel Pacific Recycling in Vancouver Island, Victoria, British Columbia, and I was there for three months and it was a magical time because we were there in the wintertime. The whole family moved up. My kids were very young. We had an apartment right in Victoria. I rode a bicycle to work to the scrapyard. But I did a bunch of really interesting financial cost accounting structure set up that helped them understand their business better and those were super useful skills when I had to do a chart of accounts setup for levitated metals. We were able to slice and dice our financials. You know extremely well and I don't know if I would have used an erp system nearly as well as I do here had I not had all those little formative experience things in the end I think for me at least. I don't feel like I had a lot of wasted years throughout any of that time I learned steve jobs, as you say. Dave: Steve jobs has the saying that you can only connect the dots when you look backwards, that at the time you can't. It's not like you had some grand plan, I'm guessing you know when you left intel. It just you know. Because steve talks about. He took this calligraphy class that he audited in college and, uh, you know, and that influenced everything at apple design and fonts and and other stuff that it only makes sense looking back so that's. Roank: That's interesting. Yeah, I can. I can see that, and it is hard to connect the dots until yeah until you look back so. Dave: So here's kind of a fun one. I think you've been a like me, you're a. Well, I consider myself a naturalized texan. My wife's a native texan, so, uh, you know, if you you know. So you're also a non-native texan, but I think you've been here long enough for this question. Tex-mex or barbecue. Roank: Barbecue makes me fall asleep. I'm not saying Tex-Mex, I've always loved Tex-Mex. So yeah, we've got some great barbecue. Actually, right near the plant Rusty Buckle is some great barbecue. Near my house is Corkscrew, which just got a Michelin star, which. Dave: Oh nice. Roank: Yeah, which I still struggle to understand how that all plays out. But Texas I guess you get a star. But I love me some Lupe Torquillo yeah yeah, I am with you. Dave: Well, is there anything I didn't ask you or we didn't talk about that you wish we had or we should have? Roank: No, but I'll do you a favor and I'll plug a little bit the IC disc. I know that's not the goal of this podcast, but it is why we know each other. Yeah, so I'll tell this story if I may. Yeah, absolutely, the IC disc and levitated metals. Yeah absolutely, yeah, absolutely, disc and levitated metals. So I called you on my birthday, three months before I, a little bit before I sold the company, and I had talked to you many times previous to that about setting up an icy disc. We, like many scrap companies, are well suited to the icyDIS because the profile of our sales are high margin exports and lower margin domestic sales, and the value of, as a pass-through entity, being able to translate ordinary income into dividend income, has great benefits to the investors of a company. I think there's probably some advantages, even if you're a C-corp, but you can detail that kind of At most. I think there's probably some advantages, even if you're a C-corp, but you can detail that kind of stuff out. I don't really know. Dave: Sure. What was? Roank: interesting when we talked about it is I was in the process of selling the company and when you sell a company that's done a bunch of bonus depreciation because it built a big factory, there's always depreciation recapture that shows up as ordinary income at the time of the sale and so whatever normal ordinary income there would have been that year it was going to be much, much higher because we would have clawed back a ton of depreciation. I put a recapture on depreciation. It's ordinary income. We, like many scrap companies again, have an IC discable kind of amount of headroom of income translation from ordinary income to dividend income Well in excess of the ordinary income we normally make in any particular year, and so, like most scrap companies, there should be no reason to pay ordinary income tax. Dave: Right. Roank: Again, most scrap companies that are Nazi corpse or whatever. But in the year of the sale, all that extra headroom suddenly became valuable because I was going to have this abnormal ordinary income from the depreciation recapture, and so what would have been X million dollars of ordinary income that would have turned to dividend income wound up being something like 2.5, x, yeah, all of which I was able to use because I had so much ordinary income, yeah. And your shareholders as well. Yes, absolutely yes, I and my shareholders. And that was phenomenal. And then on top of it, I think I got to. The ICDIS lets you defer some of that dividend income into the following year. So just sat there in our bank accounts making 5% or whatever we chose to do with that money for another year more than a year, excuse me. Just truly phenomenal. The impact of the ICDIS in my space. Not an easy thing to kind of think through. You and I were just spitballing stuff. We popped it up as an option. You had to go back and think about it, but it looks like it works. And I don't know if you have done it before. Dave: No, yeah, it was just such a unique fact and it was mostly because of how new the business was. Right, if the business had been open for 10 years, we would have started the IC desk probably in year four or five it was coming, and then you would have been using it and then you would have had that transaction, the depreciation recapture, and it would have given you a bigger benefit. It would have happened anyway. It was just your circumstances were so unique is how it all fell out, and I doubt we'll ever see that. That circumstances, because it's so rare to start a business and sell it so quickly, you know I think the takeaway of it is the one. Roank: So one of the takeaways I have from this is I should have started the ICS earlier, because of the bonus depreciation as a startup of the company and the complete depreciation of the entire factory. In the first year, I and investors had a ton of NOL and net operating losses that were just going to take a while to turn into a cumulative net gain and before that happened we sold the company. I was planning on doing an IC disc in 2024, I think was my expected timeline, which is when we would have clicked over to a game and then suddenly there would have been income that I wanted to translate over into dividend income. But I really should have just done it before into dividend income but I really should have just done it before. Dave: So the question I should have asked you was if you could go back in time two years and do anything different. Give any advice to yourself. What would it have been? I mean, it's a joke, right? You would have said start the ICDISC sooner. Roank: The real advice I would have given would have been understand how your NOLs work so that you can do a donor advice fund for the ordinary income you thought you were going to. But outside of that, in truth it's a minor esoteric thing that doesn't really matter. Dave: And so, since you brought it up I rarely talk about this. Since you brought it up, just a couple quick questions. One, because the cpa firm you use actually has some icdisk expertise and you know you could have used them. So do you recall what aspect of our I remind you. Roank: Yeah, because you're, I see this guy. Okay, and the thing that I was talking about felt esoteric enough that I didn't want to click just on a cheap bastard. I didn't want to click over, you know. CPA for billable hours while they tried to figure it out and roll me in a show or something like that. That's not how I want to play now, but the truth is I just needed something done quick and fast because every day that I waited to do the icy disc was another day of revenues that I couldn't utilize. And the second reason is, you know there's a time there's time it takes to create an icy disc and set it up and all that kind of stuff. You have that down to a science and had a method to kind of quickly get me rolling on it. While you and I both know you made a bunch of money on that transaction for a couple of years of work on it, it was completely worth it to me and a very satisfying business and personal relationship that tested both of our intellectual capabilities to kind of put together and work on. I enjoyed doing it right, like when we talk about what we enjoy and work. Dave: Yeah, that was a fun thing it was, yeah, no, it was for me too, because so yeah, so few of my clients, you know, know, have that much interest, you know, getting into the weeds there, and it caused me to think of some things I hadn't thought about in this. And again, since you brought it up, in the experience, you know, the team was the responsiveness Good, I mean, was the? Is the experience been positive? Oh yeah, it's been great, yeah what about coordinating with your CPA firm, because sometimes a CPA firm who has an ICDIS practice will sometimes say things like yeah, but it'll be more seamless if it's all under one umbrella right. Umbrella right, I mean, it's the. Did you get the sense that? That it created a lot of of extra work by the cpa firm, or that balls got dropped because you didn't have one entity doing it all? Roank: I don't think I got that sense, because the cpa firm is made up of multiple people too. That, oh, it's a good point, right? I mean, it's not like the ICDISC person is the CPA that you're working with, right? Dave: You know, I hadn't thought about that, and you're right, and there's some level of communication that is required regardless. Roank: Yeah, and that. Dave: IC-DISC practice, if I recall, for that particular firm. I think it's out of a different office. Roank: Anyway, I don't think, even if they were next to each other right which are of course not next to each other because they all work remote Even if they were next to each other, still two people having to talk, and so there's still coordination that has to happen, and you know what you're talking about. In the end. There is enough esoterica on optimizing the ICDISC usage, that especially trying to maximize the ICDISC capability that I don't think others really understand and not all of them need to understand it. But what I mean by that is for many companies they can just use the stupid simple approach for doing ICDISC and it'll still let them translate all the income they have right. In my particular case, it was important to look at the transaction by transaction optimization capability of the ICDISC in order to fully utilize and maximize the amount of income I could translate to dividend income. I use shared logic as my ERP system. There is literally an ICDISC button that creates the report that you care about. Dave: Right, and so that's one of the benefits of not to interrupt you, but people ask me because, like my, our IC disc business is almost impossible to sell. In fact your CPA firm even talked to me a few years ago about buying the ICDIS practice. The problem is we're not very sellable. We have a huge, we have a concentration risk because it's all tied to one part of the tax code. So they wanted to discount that, or they would have wanted if the conversation on that far. And the second problem is I'm a craftsman, I have the primary relationship with all of the clients. So they would have made me stay around for three or five years and I'm like you know and it would have been tied to some kind of an earn out because they're going to say well, what if the IC just goes away next year? You know we want you to basically keep some of that risk. So I don't know what got me off on this tangent of that risk. Roank: So I don't know what got me off on this tangent. I hear you, and I've thought about that question on your behalf as well, because from my perspective I think your job is kind of interesting and fun. Right, you get to visit a lot of different scrap yards, talk to a bunch of different scrap dudes about a thing you're very knowledgeable about that you know really could trans dramatically improve their financial position, and yet it's still a tough sell. Right, it should be like selling. You know it's not like selling ice cream to eskimos, and yet sometimes it probably feels that way. It is that way, yeah, yeah, and also the question of how to. Because you have a couple of people, I think that work for you, right, at least? Dave: one, yeah, yeah, there's a whole team, yeah. Roank: And so, yes, if IC-DISC went away, it would be I don't know what else you guys do, but pretty close to the end of the company and that's a rough gig. And you know, the low-grade communist in me certainly is shocked, shocked by all the awesome and incredible tax code optimization tools that exist for business owners tools that exist for business owners. Dave: I mean between the IC-DISC, new market tax credits opportunity zones right Bonus appreciation just it's Cost segregation, research-. Roank: Absolutely phenomenal, right, I am now a W2 employee like a putz, you know it's just phenomenal. But if that went away then, yeah, this does die. It's a really difficult thing to try to sell, right. It's the type of thing that, I don't know, if you can't keep some level of skin in the game or risk on it. It feels like the type of thing that if you have the right person in the organization that could be the face, should be kind of employee acquired in some capacity. Dave: Well, and that opportunity exists Some of my partners, I mean I have a standing offer to basically sell my part of the business and in many ways are you familiar with the inside. Roank: I am the. Dave: There's a deep dive of tax yeah, yeah, the structure for us I've already looked at it just doesn't. It doesn't really, it's not not the right fit, but yeah, I thought this thing. You know the funny thing about the disc it's been around since 1972, but it's been quote going, going away since 1973. So I've been doing this 20 years, and I thought I might have five years before this went away or there was a change. But the key, though, is that and that's true the concentration risk is there, but on the flip side, there's also a premium. You get a specialization premium that comes along with it. It's the reason if you look at a lawyer, the more specialized they are, the higher their billing rate, and so there's a premium that comes with that specialization. I know what I was going to say, and then I doubled down further where we have a concentration of risk within the scrap metal industry. But the benefit of that, though, is that when I show up to a scrap metal conference, I'm the only one there talking about IC disc, and I'm the one that well, a scrap guy introduced us. I mean, in fact, I won't mention him by name, but I call him my best unpaid salesman. He's referred as multiple clients. For a variety of reasons, they don't use us, but he's still a big fan of uh, of the work we do. So, yeah, and then the. Finally, there's this concept that has not caught on with a lot of americans. But there's this concept of saving Like you don't have to spend all your income in any given year, so there is this concept of you can make money, put it away and then, if the business goes away, you have this thing called like a nest egg, or you know. So People should think about it, yeah, but yeah my clients, my clients who I have a relationship with, that's. Oftentimes they'll ask me hey, dave, I'm a little worried about you, like as a friend, what happens if the IC disc goes away and I'm like I'll just spend more time there? That's what will happen. Roank: If it makes you feel better, I don't worry about you. I just think it's a very interesting company sale situation. I just think it's a very interesting company sale situation. Yeah, and you know, when you look at the environment today, you could be a tweet away from getting doged. Yeah, yeah, exactly yeah. So one of the you know, keep your head down and stay quiet, kind of things which appears to be the standard business approach to today's situation. Dave: It does seem to be. Roank: Well, hey Ronak. Dave: I can't believe how fast the time has floated. This has been a blast. I really appreciate it and I hope you have a great afternoon. Thank you, it's good to talk to you. Special Guest: Ronak Shah.

A growing and significant body of research suggests that students benefit from having a teacher of the same race or ethnicity. Yet most teachers in the U.S. are white women. St. Louis entrepreneur Angelica Harris founded Top Tutors for Us to pair Black high school students with tutors who look like them. In this encore episode, she shares how their services have led to improved test scores and higher college acceptance rates of their students.

On this episode of The STL Bucket List Show, host Lucas Farrell sits down with Dr. Alex Garza, Chief Community Health Officer at SSM Health, to talk about the intersection of healthcare, community impact, and leadership in St. Louis.Dr. Garza shares powerful insights from his career as an emergency physician, former head of the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force, and Army veteran. We dive into his mission at SSM Health to create healthier communities through innovation, compassion, and access to care, especially for underserved populations.From the importance of mental health to lessons learned from leading through COVID-19, this conversation highlights how local healthcare leaders are shaping a better future for all St. Louisans.Topics covered include• Dr. Garza's path from emergency rooms to public health leadership• How SSM Health is addressing health equity across the region• Reflections on leading during the COVID-19 pandemic• What makes St. Louis special and how we can all help enhance community health Whether you're in healthcare or simply passionate about the wellbeing of your neighbors, this episode will leave you inspired.Recorded at Bucket List Podcast Studio in St. Louis MOSupport the show

BettorEdge Partner Promo Code: PLAYME Signup Link: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BettorEdge.com/playme⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Podcast Card: Golden State +6.5 vs. Las Vegas (-110) Chicago White Sox +1.5 at Seattle (-110) Cincinnati +1.5 at Chicago Cubs (-170) New York Yankees ML at Texas (-136) San Francisco/Pittsburgh Under 8 (-115) New York Mets -1.5 vs. Cleveland (+123) LA Dodgers -1.5 vs. St. Louis (-102) Join the Free Discord + View Our Podcast Record⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://discord.gg/ZkzcH3mwHS⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ YouTube: @PlayMeorFadeMePodcast X: @MrActionJunkie1 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Before the tornado on May 16, 2025, Ali Rand was a self-described wife and stay-at-home mom of 5, living in the Central West End. Today, she’s the guiding force behind a grassroots volunteer movement born of devastation but motivated by a love for her adopted hometown of St. Louis, Missouri. Mere days after the storm, Ali sprung into action, inspiring volunteers from across St. Louis to join her in helping the victims of an F3-category storm. The “Street Angels,” as Ali and her crew are known, have done all sorts of work, including sorting and stacking brick, boarding-up windows, tarping roofs, and fundraising—all the while sharing their experiences on social media. Almost 3 months after the tornado, the work continues. In this episode of House of Lou, host Veronica Theodoro interviews Ali to learn more about her important work and the woman behind the powerful social media messages. Check Ali’s Instagram to follow along with all the work being done and how you can help. This episode is sponsored by Kranzberg Art Foundation’s MATI. MATI returns September 12–14. Enjoy live music, art exhibits, food trucks, vendors, and good vibes, all in the streets of the Grand Center Arts District. Grab your passes. New to podcasts? Follow these instructions to start listening to our shows, and hear what you’ve been missing! Mentioned in this episode: Ali Rand (@alirand) Forsyth School Villa Dushesne JCR Design Group Alex Thornhill Chase Park Plaza Cinema Britt Design World Chess Hall of Fame & Galleries Forest Park Half & Half COCA Modern Masonry and Restoration (Wes Klaus) PLNK Fitness Washington University Occupational Therapy You may also enjoy these articles from SLM: More episodes of House of Lou Tornado updates and resources See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s peak produce season in St. Louis, and George and Cheryl have been busy scouring the area’s farmers markets for the perfect tomatoes, peaches, and sweet corn. Along the way, they’ve come across some hidden gems that make these markets some of the spots to enjoy the region’s culinary bounty—and they’re letting you in on the secret. From a must-visit new pastry stand at Tower Grove to one of the best condiments in the bi-state area at Lake St. Louis, this episode will give you your ultimate farmers market shopping guide to make this your most delicious summer ever. This episode is sponsored by Cardinals Nation. Make your game day unforgettable at Cardinals Nation Restaurant & Bar—just steps from Busch Stadium! Book your table. New to podcasts? Follow these instructions to start listening to our shows, and hear what you’ve been missing! Have an idea for a future Arch Eats episode? Send your thoughts or feedback by emailing podcasts@stlmag.com. Hungry for more? Subscribe to our Dining newsletters for the freshest coverage on the local restaurant and culinary scene. And follow George (@georgemahe) and SLM on Instagram (@stlouismag). Interested in being a podcast sponsor? Contact Lauren Leppert at lleppert@stlmag.com. Mentioned in this episode: Balkan Treat Box, 8103 Big Bend, Webster Groves, 314-733-5700Madrina, 101 W Lockwood, Webster Groves, 314-963-1976White Castle, multiple locations & phone numbers.Kirkwood Farmers’ Market, 150 E Argonne, Downtown Kirkwood, 314-984-9496Stonie’s Sausage Shop, 1507 Edgemont, Perryville, 573-547-2540Buttonwood Farms Odelehr Farm Baked Goods, 7127 Illinois River, Brussels IL, 618-883-2265Tropical Moose, located in Kirkwood Farmers Market & Kirkwood Park, Kirkwood, 314-570-6517Ferguson Farmers’ Market, 501 S Florissant, Ferguson, 314-521-4661MO Flourishing Fungi, 160 Saint Benedict, Florissant, 314-626-4189Bluefield Kitchen, pickup location varies, North County, 314-606-4331Hotplate, online food business platform.Market Wagon, online farmers market.Earthdance Organic Farm, 233 S Dade, Ferguson, 314-521-1006Lake St. Louis Farmers’ Market, 20 Meadows Circle, Lake St. Louis, 636-352-6716Luna Maki, 636-344-0498Capulí Cakery, no storefront address, 314-546-0847Wildwood Farmers’ Market, 221 Plaza, Wildwood, 636-458-0440NHB Knifeworks, no address or phone.Angel’s Fruits, no storefront address, 314-624-9199Boulevard Farmers’ Market, 1 Blvd Saint Louis, Richmond Heights, no phone.Tower Grove Farmers’ Market, 4257 Northeast, Tower Grove, no phone.Klondike Bison, 2207 Lynch, 314-773-6779Skáld Bakery, found at Tower Grove Farmers’ Market (4257 Northeast), no phone.Comet Bakery, 640 W Woodbine, Kirkwood, no phone.Estella’s Frescas, found at Tower Grove Farmers’ Market (4257 Northeast), no phone.Fourth City Barbecue, looking for a new home, can be found at Tower Grove Farmers’ Market (4257 Northeast), 314-669-6505Wheelhouse Fish Co., found at Tower Grove Farmers’ Market (4257 Northeast), no phone.Dang Good Produce, 15795 State Hwy W, Bourbon, 573-732-3276Food with Yoo, found at Tower Grove Farmers’ Market (4257 Northeast), no phone.Farm Spirit, 2710 Locust (inside Bluejay Brewing Co.), no phone.Ivan’s Fig Farm, found at Tower Grove Farmers’ Market (4257 Northeast), no phone.Grand Army Farm, found at Tower Grove Farmers’ Market (4257 Northeast), 314-302-7454Urban Buds, 4736 Tennessee, Dutchtown, 314-399-8377Iron Hill Farm, 3253 Iron Hill, Union, no phone.Tower Grove Farmers’ Market, 20 year anniversary, August 30, 4257 Northeast, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. You may also enjoy these articles from SLM:More episodes of Arch EatsEssential summer dishes in St. LouisGuide to farmers’ markets in St. LouisSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

St. Louis City SC beat writer Tom Timmermann and co-host Beth O'Malley say goodbye to center back Joakim Nilsson, whose time in St. Louis was curtailed by just plain bad luck with injuries. Meanwhile, as the team's injury list shrinks, the internal competition for playing time, and continued employment, picks up.

Today on Roadmap to Heaven, Adam learns how you can celebrate your patron saints with great festivity! Andrew Thompson-Briggs joins Adam to share details about this year's Festival of St. Louis. Even if you live outside of the city or archdiocese, you can incorporate elements of the 2025 festival into your parish's patronal celebrations. Fr. Christopher Trummer joins Adam for a reflection on today's Gospel reading. Download the Covenant Network app today! Pray the Visual Rosary at VisualRosary.org For more information on Covenant Network, visit OurCatholicRadio.org

Rod and Karen banter about talking with nerds about Naruto and their new Patreon offerings. Then they discuss Tiny Desk continuing despite CPB closure, National Weather Service scrambling to re-hire people, raw milk outbreak, Donald Trump supports Sydney Sweeney’s ad, Charlamagne vs Trump, Mike Flood town hall goes wrong, Geoff Duncan defects to the Dems, Elon Musk is the most unpopular, Trump’s justice department targeted Jack Smith and President Obama. Then they discuss Ice Cube’s new movie gets a zero on Rotten Tomatoes, getting arrested on a police bike, Nicki Minaj challenge goes wrong, zoo wants people to donate pets, Bootsy Collins, Drake cancels shows, man threatens to kill 30k Black people, St Louis couple gets gun back after pointing it at Black Lives Matter protesters, gangster granny sentence to prison, KY church shooter was aspiring rapper and mother kills daughter with sword. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theblackguywhotips Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@rodimusprime⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@SayDatAgain⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@TBGWT⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@TheBlackGuyWhoTips⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Email: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠theblackguywhotips@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Blog: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.theblackguywhotips.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Teepublic Store⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Amazon Wishlist⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Crowdcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Voicemail: ‪(980) 500-9034Go Premium: https://www.theblackguywhotips.com/premium/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sauce Magazine was recently acquired by STL Bucket List. But the publication's cofounder and previous owner alleges in a lawsuit that she's still owed money from when she sold it to the man who just sold the publication. We break down what the sale means with STLPR digital editor Jessica Rogen and Sauce Magazine executive editor Lauren Healey. We also talk through the latest in St. Louis dining, including the opening of Fordo's Killer Pizza in the Grove, Bel Air Social in the Central West End, and Pierce Creek in Creve Coeur. Plus, we say goodbye to Pho Long's original location and El Burro Loco.

The Delmar divide can be seen from above - there are fewer trees in lower-income, majority-Black neighborhoods in St. Louis. In recent years, nonprofits have been working to even things out. The May 16 tornado changed that work overnight.

Losing tree canopy has consequences far beyond an aesthetic change for a neighborhood. For the St. Louis residents affected by the May 16 tornado, the sudden loss of thousands of trees may have longstanding effects on their physical and mental health. Community organizations share how they are helping the city replace trees lost to the storm — and their efforts to help residents learn about proper tree care and heal from tree-related trauma.