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We discuss Gerda Steyn's "comfortable" Comrades record (and George Kusche's not-so-comfortable victory finish), Aaron Kubala's Tahoe 200 course record, Rod Farvard and Martina Valmassoi's dominant UTMB Andorra wins, Western States withdrawals from Keely Henninger and Seth Ruling, our Broken Arrow storylines to watch, Terignota's wild financials, athletes on the move (Canyon Woodward to Patagonia), Tudor's luxury trail play, and our favorite content of the week.Partners:Precision Fuel and Hydration - use code SINGLETRACK at checkout for 15% off your next orderNorda - check out the 005: the lightest, fastest, most stable trail racing shoe ever madeRaide - Making equipment for efficient human-powered movement in the mountains Janji - running gear that goes the distanceMomentous - use code SINGLETRACK for up to 35% off your first order Kodiak Cakes - my favorite oatmeal and pancakes Support the show
Chris Paul and Burning Bright tackle Francis Ford Coppola's 1974 sequel The Godfather Part II, considered by many to be the greatest film of all time and certainly the greatest sequel. Starring Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, and John Cazale as the unforgettable Fredo, this is one of the rare second installments that completely flips the tone of the original and absolutely earns it. The conversation circles the dual storylines of young Vito building an empire from immigrant nothing in New York and Michael unraveling the same empire from inside his Tahoe compound. Burning Bright argues that De Niro's Vito chases power because he saw what power does to people, while Michael only knows how to hold onto power he was handed, making him a pale shadow of his father even as he ascends to greater heights. They unpack the Fanucci scene as a perfect lesson in how abstract power collapses the moment someone calls the bluff, the Hyman Roth and Meyer Lansky parallel with Cuba in 1958 as a preview of what may be coming again, the Joker analog for Michael's endgame of just winning, and Kay's spite abortion as a stunning window into how openly anti family the 1970s really were.
Rear-view cameras that go dark, airbags that don't behave the way you expect, and screens that blank out at the worst time, that's where we start. We run through a packed list of new vehicle recalls and talk about what they mean in plain English: what's affected, why it matters, and the simple step every owner should take right now (hint: check your VIN and get on the schedule before it becomes a roadside story).From there, we jump into the most addictive kind of car talk: real auction results. We use Hemmings online sales to play “guess the price,” bouncing from a head-turning 1957 Cadillac Eldorado to a 1967 Corvette convertible, a clean two-door 1999 Tahoe, a vintage Land Rover, a 1955 Buick Super, and even a Cobra-style build. Along the way, we break down the collector car market signals that actually move the numbers like condition, originality, drivetrains, and why some “everyman” vehicles are suddenly not so cheap.We wrap with automotive news you can use: U.S. auto sales holding steady under inflation pressure, new global SUV launches and rebadging rumors, Mitsubishi's plan for a Nissan-sourced mid-size pickup, and a jaw-dropping story about an $80,000 Camaro stolen twice in five days. We also talk Toyota's sales dip as buyers wait for redesigns, the surge in hybrids, and why FTC warnings plus customer reviews are a smart early warning system for bait-and-switch dealer behavior. If you like practical advice mixed with car culture and a few laughs, subscribe, share the show with a car friend, and leave us a review.Be sure to subscribe for more In Wheel Time Car Talk!The Lupe' Tortilla RestaurantsLupe Tortilla in Katy, Texas Gulf Coast Auto ShieldPaint protection, tint, and more!Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.---- ----- Want more In Wheel Time car talk any time? In Wheel Time is now available on Audacy! Just go to Audacy.com/InWheelTime where ever you are.----- -----Be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast provider for the next episode of In Wheel Time Podcast and check out our live multiplatform broadcast every Saturday, 10a - 12nCT simulcasting on Audacy, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Twitch and InWheelTime.com.In Wheel Time Podcast can be heard on you mobile device from providers such as:Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music Podcast, Spotify, SiriusXM Podcast, iHeartRadio podcast, TuneIn + Alexa, Podcast Addict, Castro, Castbox, YouTube Podcast and more on your mobile device.Follow InWheelTime.com for the latest updates!Twitter: https://twitter.com/InWheelTimeInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/inwheeltime/https://www.youtube.com/inwheeltimehttps://www.Facebook.com/InWheelTimeFor more information about In Wheel Time Podcast, email us at info@inwheeltime.com
Advocates raise concerns about new federal immigration court initiative designed to expedite deportation order cases. Plus, what's behind a utility company's search for new power source? Finally, preserving Indigenous stories for future generations.
Become a Distance to Empty subscriber!: https://www.patreon.com/DistancetoEmptyPod Get some free DTE Swag by supporting out sponsors!https://janji.com/pages/distance-to-empty and be sure to select 'podcast' > 'Distance to Empty' on the post purchase "How did you hear about Janji" page. Thank you!Check out Mount to Coast here: https://mounttocoast.com/discount/DistanceCode IRON at www.goodranchers.com and mention us in the post purchase survey!The Tahoe 200 Goes All the Way Around Again — 2026 Course Preview with Jameson CollinsFor the first time since 2019, the Tahoe 200 is a true full loop—no out-and-back, no fire detour, just 200+ miles circumnavigating Lake Tahoe. Kevin and Peter sit down with Jameson Collins, Destination Trail's HQ manager and course marking director, who just spent a week hanging dragons and ribbons across the entire course. Fresh off the trail, Jameson walks us through the loop aid station by aid station, with current-as-of-race-week intel on snow, water, blowdown, and everything in between.This year's race is a tale of two courses: a wild, remote, technical first ~100 miles through the Caldor Fire scar and forgotten corners of the El Dorado National Forest, then a return to the smooth, groomed "fairytale" Tahoe Rim Trail experience from Barker Pass home. Jameson breaks down where you'll be post-holing through soft snow (and why microspikes won't save you), which sections feel like bushwhacking dragon-to-dragon, where the jeeps will be crawling up Cadillac Hill, and why Wrights-to-Loon is the single hardest leg out there.Plus: gear and spike strategy, dressing for the brush and burn scars, the three sleep stations (Wrights Lake, Barker Pass, Brockway Summit), where the course dries out and water gets scarce, the brutal final climb under the Heavenly ski lifts, and Jameson's best advice for anyone tempted to quit with hours of cushion still in the bank.Race starts Friday, June 12 at 9 AM. 105-hour cutoff. Heavenly Stagecoach Lodge start/finish. Pacers allowed from Loon Lake (mile 87.6).Guest: Jameson Collins — Destination Trail HQ manager, course marking director, and founder of Huda Trail.
The Tahoe TAP podcast returns with another conversation spotlighting the Things, Adventures, and People that make life around Lake Tahoe so special. Hosts Mike Peron and Rob Galloway are back behind the mic, sharing fresh stories and local voices from around the basin before diving into a conversation with one of Tahoe's most recognizable environmental leaders. In this episode, Tahoe TAP welcomes Darcie Goodman Collins, PhD, CEO of Keep Tahoe Blue, the nonprofit organization at the forefront of protecting and restoring the clarity, beauty, and environmental health of Lake Tahoe. Born and raised in South Lake Tahoe, Goodman Collins brings a rare blend of scientific expertise, local roots, and policy experience to one of the region's most important missions: preserving the lake for future generations. She earned her doctorate in environmental science from UC Santa Barbara and has become one of Tahoe's strongest and most visible advocates for conservation, representing the region from neighborhood initiatives to policy discussions in Washington, D.C. Her connection to Keep Tahoe Blue runs deep. Goodman Collins first joined the organization as a summer intern in 1996 and, just a year later, represented Tahoe youth at the inaugural Tahoe Presidential Summit. After years of environmental leadership and advocacy, she officially joined the organization's staff in 2012 and has since helped guide major efforts focused on lake clarity, sustainable recreation, environmental stewardship, and community engagement. Beyond her work in conservation, Goodman Collins is also an avid outdoor enthusiast who embraces the Tahoe lifestyle year-round — running marathons, ski touring, and even swimming in Lake Tahoe during the colder months. In this episode, the conversation explores the challenges facing the lake today, what progress is being made to protect Tahoe's future, and how residents and visitors alike can play a role in keeping Tahoe blue. Tune in for an insightful conversation with one of the strongest voices working to protect the place we all love.
Welcome back to part two of this weeks episode!We get into a quick recap of the drake album release then we get into a clip where Georgie says the person who offends cannot dictate a persons response as Tahoe and Yesterday go over a disagreement that they had. Kevin Harts roast and the pushback he is getting from the black community. Enjoy!
We are the Motor Medics working in our shop every day for decades now and broadcasting on over 250 radio stations and podcast helping people fix their cars and trucks since 1990. The call cost nothing but could save you thousands. Call us any day 866-594-4150 and leave us a message to get back to you or call live during the show. Thursdays from 9-11am Central. Here are today's callers.1. 09 Camry rough idle 2. 2016 Tahoe idle fluctuates 3. Do serpentine belts fail less these days? 4. F150 transmission recall 5. 21 F150 Rough idle 6. 12 Chevy 1500 locks itself 7. 20 f150 dash clicking 8. Discarding used parts 9. 09 Sierra brake leak 10. Choosing the right battery tender
This week Zach is finally out of Tahoe! Now back and almost as good as ever with Shannon and Justin to discuss the Sony State of Play, What we might see at Xbox's showcase, and Zach has been waiting to DEEP DIVE on some Subnautica 2.
This week Alex and Randy go over all their recent favorites from the site, talking along the way about a heavy-breathing Fairlane, the terrible-or-terrific teals of the early '90s, a bullet-riddled Jeep, a raft of special Z-cars, and one of our favorite sellers. They take a lengthy detour into oddball induction setups before returning to the special Cunningham race car on the site, which prompts memories of Alex's traumatic childhood visit to The Briggs Cunningham Automotive Museum.Next, assumed clone status; missing a Rallye in Tahoe; a brief review of '80s box flares, followed by an about-face to perhaps the curviest car ever made; a solid parking lot scene on taco night; fulfilling a 60-year dream for Alex's dad; a visit to Charlie Goodman's place; Randy's upcoming pod episode with Rob Fisher ahead of our appearance at the Hillsborough Concours, the longest-running event of its kind in California; our July gathering at the Rose Cup at PIR (also the location of the first-ever BaT event); and this summer's BaT sponsorship of the vintage weekend festivities in Elkhart Lake.Follow along! Links for the listings discussed in this episode:0:21 1964 Ford Fairlane 500 Two-Door Hardtop K-Code 289 4-Speed and triple carb setup2:09 5k-Mile 2014 Ford Mustang GT Holman Moody TdF3:33 1992 Volkswagen Golf GTI 5-Speed6:29 1977 AM General M151A28:52 1972 Nissan Fairlady Z4329:07 Raffi user profile9:36 BaT Podcast Episode 48: “A Quiet Greatness” with Myron Vernis and Mark Brinker11:03 1970 Datsun 240Z Series I11:11 1970 Datsun 240Z Series I11:26 Vintage Restoration Program 1972 Datsun 240Z 4-Speed12:44 BAT Podcast Episode 143: Design and Empathy with Raffi Minasian13:25 Ex–Briggs Cunningham 1961 Cooper Monaco Mk III and LA Times GP photo16:31 Race Cars on BaT19:08 BaT Podcast Episode 76: Texas Legend: Jim Hall and his Chaparrals19:12 BaT Podcast Episode 58: Peter Egan on a Career at Large19:38 38-Years-Owned 1966 Shelby Mustang GT350 4-Speed Conversion21:08 1969 Shelby Mustang GT350 Fastback 4-Speed21:52 32-Years-Owned 1989 Volkswagen Rallye Golf25:45 250+ MPH, Record-Setting 1993 Audi S4 6-Speed40:11 Live from the HMSA Portland Historic Races and Screaming V8's at the 2012 Portland Historics and 2012 Portland Historics – Lessons Learned!Got suggestions for our next guest from the BaT community or an idea for our next game episode? Let us know at podcast@bringatrailer.com!
Welcome back to So Shameless!!Tahoe and Yesssterday return from the Roots picnic and have a story to tell and the crew get into Jay-Z's return and the historic Roc-a-fella and State Property reunion. Tune into part two releasing this Saturday or head over to patreon to hear the entire episode ad free!
Our 4th annual Coronado Golf Retreat was one for the books — and this episode takes you behind the scenes of one of the most meaningful Golf Party Live experiences we've ever created. This year's retreat had a completely different vibe because everyone stayed together under one roof at our beach house. The connection, laughter, vulnerability, friendships, and community became the true heartbeat of the trip. Because Golf Party Live retreats are about so much more than golf. These retreats are about women putting themselves out there, building confidence, trying new things, making memories, and forming friendships that continue long after the final putt drops. Joining us for this recap episode is retreat attendee Heather Bower, who shares her perspective and experience from the week. Heather is a newer golfer and a wonderful example of the supportive and welcoming environment that makes these retreats so special. In this episode, we recap the entire retreat experience:
Scotland has the Lochness Monster, Canada has the Ogopogo, and many other cultures have sea serpents and monsters of the deep. But did you know, hidden in the deep alpine waters of Lake Tahoe there lies a lake monster known as the infamous TESSIE??? Well there is and we're talkin' about him...or her... or they..or them...or however it choses to be identified. Speaking of identified what IS Tessie? A giant fish? Abounded ship? A landlocked dinosaur? Or..the figment of peoples' imagination?? We get to the bottom of this Californiasaurus and much more on this week's episode of Art and Jacob Do America! As always follow us on the stuff Merch Store- http://tee.pub/lic/doEoXMI_oPI Patreon- https://www.patreon.com/Artandjacobdoamerica Website- https://artandjacobdoamerica.com/ Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/artandjacobdoamerica Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/artandjacobdoamerica/
Welcome Back To Part Two of this weeks episode feat Jordan and Jaylin of the @BeingBlackIsGhetto podcast. We get back into it as Tahoe tells a personal story about his family home, charging your child for their childhood room once they are an adult, The Knicks are in the Finals, Ian of the JBP asks if you would take $100,000 or a series of meetings with him and Joe Budden to help your business, and a man tells his wife she needs to lose the weight after a pregnancy because he is no longer attracted to her.
This week Zach is still missing in Tahoe (expect the Netflix mini series next year) so Shannon and Justin are back at it to talk about the fall of Bungie, how good Forza Horizon 6 still is, and Kickstarter.
Blister Pop Adventures: The Ultimate Guide to America's Epic Day Hikes - Welcome back to the Outdoor Adventure Series! In today's episode, Howard sits down with Philip Clark, founder of Blister Pop Adventures and host of the Off You Pop Podcast. Based in Reno, Nevada, Philip has dedicated himself to helping “ordinary people” tackle epic, challenging day hikes across America—and beyond.Through Blister Pop Adventures, Philip curates in-depth hiking guides to some of the most iconic and demanding one-day hikes, from desert ascents to mountainous treks, aiming to inspire others to overcome their fear of the wilderness and discover their own limits. He shares insights into preparing for these adventures, the importance of training and humility on the trail, and the camaraderie found atop the country's highest peaks.We'll also explore how Philip turned his passion for adventure into a business and a podcast, and what it takes to bring others along on this journey—whether you're collecting the full set of hike cards or simply taking your first step outside the front door. So lace up those boots and get ready for a deep dive into the adventure lifestyle, the lessons learned on the trail, and what it's like to summit both mountains and new challenges.DISCUSSION00:00 Creating hiking guides03:41 Planning safe iconic US hikes07:41 Designing Iconic and Recognizable Hikes12:02 Getting started with hiking basics15:56 Challenges of Overestimating Fitness18:03 Attempting a Guinness World Record21:52 Documenting hiking adventures23:43 Sharing experiences with real guides27:19 Launching the Tahoe hiking challenge32:56 Tough final miles on Whitney33:48 Hiking experiences in California41:20 Finding Blister Pop and Podcast LinksLEARN MORETo learn more about Philip and BlisterPop, visit the website at https://www.blisterpopadventures.com/ and their social sites:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/953330611196045Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blisterpophikesYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@blisterpopadventuresKEYWORDSPhilip Clark, Blisterpop Adventures, Outdoor Adventure Series, Podcast Interview, PodMatch#PhilipClark #BlisterpopAdventures #OutdoorAdventureSeries #PodcastInterview #PodMatchMy Favorite Podcast Tools: Production by DescriptHosting BuzzsproutShow Notes by CastmagicWebsite powered by PodpageBe a Podcast Guest by PodMatchBanner Customization by Nano Banana & Canva
Mason opens up about how she went viral on social media. Spoiler alert: it was oversharing. People are worried about Justin Beiber… again. Is Ryan Reynolds distancing himself from Blake Lively? Jlo is in her single era. So is Mason. Is Sabrina Carpenter too short for fashion? It SNOWED in Tahoe. Vinnie is still on the hunt for the perfect deodorant. There was an explosion of a chemical tank in Washington State. “No more, we're FULL!” - Charlotte, NC. Plus, lazy gigs that pay a ton.
Hour 1: Mason opens up about how she went viral on social media. Spoiler alert: it was oversharing. People are worried about Justin Beiber… again. Is Ryan Reynolds distancing himself from Blake Lively? Jlo is in her single era. So is Mason. Is Sabrina Carpenter too short for fashion? It SNOWED in Tahoe. Vinnie is still on the hunt for the perfect deodorant. There was an explosion of a chemical tank in Washington State. “No more, we're FULL!” - Charlotte, NC. Plus, lazy gigs that pay a ton. Hour 2: A famous OnlyFans model turned down $15 Million for this reason. Matty would sell it for WAY less. RFK Jr. got bit by snakes. Come see Matty at Carrington College today! Looking down is bad for your neck. We don't have any suggestions on how to help, but there it is. Being single has its perks. First off, no one will eat your burrito, and you can nap anytime you want! Hour 3: Let's talk about Summer House! Amanda and West “defended' their actions in part 1 of the reunion, and no one is impressed. Lil Wayne is engaged! A local road rage incident ended in a shooting. A bizarre real estate investment in San Francisco. Looking for a way to connect with nature? Cheek out The Friends of Sausal Creek! A Pickleball player finally lost their cool. Summer is coming! It's time to figure out what to do with those kids. Don't forget about Bob's Movie Club. Tomorrow we are discussing ‘Ferris Bueller's Day Off.' Hour 4: Sydney Sweeney is selling her bath water… again?! Dakota Johnson and Chris Martin - are they together or what? The All American Rejects says artists should be held accountable for their high ticket prices. Pierre Deny of ‘Emily in Paris' passed away suddenly. Russell Crowe wants to know why you have a problem with him. The gang is fortunate enough to have seen a TON of live music. Here are their favorite experiences!
“Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, ‘My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.’ So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:8–10 NLT) Very few people have ever been given a vision of Heaven. Imagine the impact such a vision would have on someone. It isn’t hard to envision a scenario in which such a privilege caused someone to become a little arrogant. Imagine sitting around with a group of people who were talking about where they went for vacation. “We went to Hawaii.” “We went to Tahiti.” “We went to Italy.” Can you picture the apostle Paul, sitting back, just waiting for the perfect opportunity to trump them all? “I went to Heaven.” “Heaven? Are you talking about Heavenly Valley, that ski resort near Tahoe?” “No, I’m talking about Heaven—the place of eternal reward.” “Uh huh. And what was it like?” “I can’t really explain it. But it was better than where you went.” But Paul didn’t get arrogant about his experience because God initiated a plan to keep him from being filled with pride. Paul described it this way: “So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud” (2 Corinthians 12:7 NLT). He doesn’t say what the thorn in his flesh was. All we know is that it was troublesome enough for Paul to pray to be rid of it. “Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, ‘My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.’ So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:8–10 NLT). Often, we imagine that we’re at our best when we operate from a position of strength—bold, confident, unshakable, and impervious to trials and tribulations. We convince ourselves that we’re most effective after we’ve cleared the obstacles from our path and overcome our infirmities. God sees it a different way. He prefers that we operate from a position of weakness so that His strength is unmistakable. He wants us to rely on Him so that others can see us rely on Him so that they will rely on Him, too. That’s why He allowed hardship in Paul’s life. And that’s why He allows hardship in our lives. Hardship makes people usable in God’s kingdom, if we recognize that hardship for what it is. Reflection question: How can you respond to a current hardship in your life in a way that makes you usable in God’s kingdom? Discuss Today's Devo in Harvest Discipleship! The Harvest Crusade is coming to Angel Stadium on July 11! Stay updated on all important event details. — The audio production of the podcast "Greg Laurie: Daily Devotions" utilizes Generative AI technology. This allows us to deliver consistent, high-quality content while preserving Harvest's mission to "know God and make Him known." All devotional content is written and owned by Pastor Greg Laurie. Listen to the Greg Laurie Podcast Become a Harvest PartnerSupport the show: https://harvest.org/supportSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Money is tight and car repairs are expensive. Before you head to your shop call us for help with what might be wrong with your car. We are the Motor Medics working in our shop every day for decades now and broadcasting on over 250 radio stations and podcast helping people fix their cars and trucks since 1990. The call cost nothing but could save you thousands. Call us any day 866-594-4150 and leave us a message to get back to you or call live during the show. Thursdays from 9-11am Central. Here are today's callers. Why does my 18 Mustang have an o2 sensor code after I overfilled the gas tank? What fluid maintenance should I do on my Colorado? When should I do my first oil change on my 26 Trailblazer? What is the proper transmission temp range for a 08 Tahoe? What causes a repeat misfire and bad coils on a 19 Honda Accord 1.6?
What does it really mean to push an industry forward without losing sight of the people climbing on your walls? On this episode of the Impact Driver Podcast, host Holly Chen invited Rylan Marshall-Meistrich (he/him) into the studio to hear his answer. Rylan has been climbing since 2004 and setting since 2005, starting out at ROCK'n & JAM'n (now The Spot Thornton), one of Colorado's earliest climbing gyms. He then worked at Planet Granite in San Francisco and a stint in Tahoe before returning to Colorado in 2017 as head setter at Movement Boulder. Now, Rylan is Movement's Colorado Director of Setting. With nearly two decades of setting experience, Rylan has set at nearly every discipline of USA Climbing nationals and holds a USAC Level 5 certification. Outside the gym, he runs a small recording studio in his basement and has been playing music since middle school—a side of him that shows up more in his setting philosophy than you might expect. General Topics Covered What is a routesetter's job, really? Setting for your audience: from professional athletes to the birthday party room Setting for yourself: when it can serve the climber and when it only serves yourself The fine line between creativity versus usability The impermanence problem: why routesetting innovation often has to happen slowly and what that means for setters trying to push the envelope How trends move through the industry and the difference between duplication and emulation The difference between vertical and lateral career progression in routesetting The USAC pipeline, online presence, and how setters are building reputations in a more competitive field Where competition bouldering is heading, and an honest reckoning with what experience actually means with a long career Show Notes Movement Gyms Colorado Necessity Breeds Invention – the Impact Driver Podcast with Andy Nelson On Eye-Pro, Ugly Boulders, and Influencers – the Impact Driver Podcast with Kegan Minock Lessons From the Sharp End of Modern Setting – the Impact Driver Podcast with Mike Bockino Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative by Austin Kleon Born from the Climbing Life: Episode 4—Drifter's Escape—The World's Hardest Trad Climb Closing Notes If you'd like to nominate someone as a guest next guest, have a topic you want to see us tackle or have questions, we'd love for you to reach out. You can find our pitch form here. The Impact Driver Podcast is a production of the Climbing Business Journal. Today's episode is sponsored by Rúngne, Cascade Specialty, Trango, the Climbing Wall Association, and Kilter. It was edited and produced by Holly Yu Tung Chen, Megan Cheek, Scott Rennak and Joe Robinson, and our theme music is by Devin Dabney.
This week on Fresh Hop Cinema: Beer From: a lot of places Beer 1: Crux the Cat // American IPA // 7% J:9.3 M:9 Beer 2: Talon Grind // Pastry Stout // 12.8% J:10 M:8 Film : “The Drama" (2026) Kristoffer Borgli Ratings: Jonny - 9.2, Max - 9 Inside Hot & Bothered: - Max: Western Day, Ren Faire, Tahoe & St Helena - Jonny: Drop and dash, the boys season 5
This week Zach is driving to Tahoe, but Shannon and Justin are driving around JAPAN in Forza Horizon 6. Justin also talks about how his birthday went and Shannon just can't seem to get anyone's name right.
Mindy Diamond on Independence: A Podcast for Financial Advisors Considering Change
With Rafael Loureiro, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Wealth.com Rafael Loureiro on why estate planning is shifting from a static legal exercise to an AI-powered, advisor-led planning process. In Summary Estate planning has traditionally operated outside the core advisor workflow—handled through attorneys, revisited infrequently, and often disconnected from the broader client relationship. Louis speaks with Rafael Loureiro, Co-Founder and CEO of Wealth.com, about how AI is beginning to change that model. The conversation explores how advisors can use tools like Ester to surface planning gaps, stay ahead of client changes, and deliver a more continuous planning experience. For advisors, the broader implication is strategic: as investment management becomes increasingly commoditized, integrated planning and ongoing coordination may become a far more meaningful differentiator. The Storyline Most advisors already discuss estate planning with clients. The challenge is what happens next. In many cases, the process still moves outside the advisor relationship: clients are referred to an attorney, documents are created, and the estate plan becomes something revisited only after a major life event or liquidity event forces an update. Louis and Rafael explore why that structure is starting to break down. Rafael's own estate planning experience following the sale of Emailage to LexisNexis exposed how fragmented the process could feel, even for highly engaged clients working with sophisticated advisors. That experience ultimately became the foundation for Wealth.com and its AI-powered planning platform, Ester. The discussion focuses less on AI as a headline topic and more on how it changes advisor workflow in practice—from document interpretation and planning summaries to surfacing next actions and helping advisors stay proactively engaged as client circumstances evolve. For advisors thinking about the future of planning, the conversation raises a larger question: if financial planning itself becomes increasingly standardized, where does the next layer of differentiation come from? Topics Covered Continuous estate planning AI-powered advisor workflows com and Ester Advisor-led estate planning Family office-style client service Trust and estate attorney collaboration Estate planning for mass affluent clients AI agents in wealth management Dynasty Financial Partners integration Advisor differentiation beyond investment management > Download a transcript of this episode… Listen and Learn Highlights for Advisors Why did Rafael decide to build Wealth.com? (06:04) Rafael explains how his own estate planning experience after a liquidity event exposed major disconnects between advisors, attorneys, and clients. Why did Wealth.com choose an advisor-led model instead of direct-to-consumer? (14:28) The platform was designed around the belief that advisors (not marketing campaigns) are best positioned to initiate estate planning conversations with clients. What does “continuous estate planning” actually mean? (20:13) Rafael describes a system where client life changes, tax events, and asset activity can trigger proactive advisor engagement rather than periodic document reviews. How does Ester move beyond document summarization? (32:30) The platform now identifies planning opportunities, prepares tasks and reports, and increasingly helps advisors automate portions of the planning workflow. Why are enterprise firms and large banks adopting platforms like Wealth.com? (24:57) Many firms were already producing estate planning summaries manually for ultra-high-net-worth clients. AI allows those capabilities to scale much more efficiently. How should advisors think about the role of trust and estate attorneys going forward? (26:50) Rafael argues that AI enhances – not replaces – the attorney relationship by improving efficiency and reserving more sophisticated matters for specialized legal expertise. What may differentiate advisory firms as planning becomes more commoditized? (38:02) The discussion points toward responsiveness, coordination, personalization, and deeper client integration as the next major competitive layer for advisors. Key Takeaways Rafael believes estate planning is shifting from a one-time legal exercise to a continuous planning process supported by AI and advisor engagement. Wealth.com was intentionally built as an advisor-first platform rather than a direct-to-consumer business. Ester's AI capabilities now extend beyond summarization into identifying planning gaps, surfacing opportunities, and preparing advisor workflows. Many firms are using estate planning as a way to deepen relationships and expand into more family-office-style service models. AI may allow advisors to serve more clients while maintaining a higher level of personalization and responsiveness. Trust and estate attorneys remain critical for complex situations, but AI can improve efficiency and help clients arrive better prepared. Advisors who fail to expand beyond investment management risk competing in an increasingly commoditized landscape. https://youtu.be/BDI6XbEz_4E Quotable Moments “When AI moves from simply organizing information to helping drive decisions, estate planning stops being a periodic task.” “Investment management is becoming table stakes. Financial planning is becoming table stakes.” “Why does it have to be that way? Now with AI, why can we not have continuous estate planning?” “It is the intangibles.” “My goal is to empower the advisor.” Related Resources Human Intelligence in the Age of AI: Why Recruiters Still MatterArtificial intelligence can analyze firms and deals. It can't replace the insight and advocacy that help advisors make the right move. The Future of Prospecting: How AI Is Powering the Next Era of Advisor GrowthFINNY Co-Founder Eden Ovadia shares how AI is transforming advisor prospecting: automating outreach, matching advisors with ideal clients, and freeing time for deeper human connection. A forward-looking conversation on what growth will look like in the next era of wealth management. Rafael LoureiroCo-Founder and CEO Rafael Loureiro is a technology entrepreneur and product-focused executive with more than 20 years of experience across startups, growth-stage companies, and Fortune 500 organizations. He is Co-Founder and CEO of Wealth.com, a leading estate and tax planning platform powered by proprietary AI and purpose-built for financial institutions. Under his leadership, Wealth.com has expanded into a comprehensive planning platform, embedding deterministic AI to deliver precise, auditable outcomes across estate and tax workflows. Prior to founding Wealth.com, Rafael served as Chief Technology Officer at Emailage, a global fraud prevention SaaS company acquired by RELX in 2020. He is a member of the Forbes Finance Council and has been recognized across the industry, including CEO of the Year honors and Forbes' Top AI Founders to Watch. Originally from France and raised in Brazil, Rafael now resides with his family in the Phoenix metro area. NOTE: The views and opinions expressed by the guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Diamond Consultants. Neither Diamond Consultants nor the guests on this podcast are compensated in any way for their participation. View the transcript of this episode… Why AI Matters Now: Filling the Estate Planning Gap with Wealth.com A conversation with Louis Diamond and Rafael Loureiro, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer at Wealth.com. Louis Diamond: Welcome to the latest episode of our podcast series for financial advisors. Today’s episode is Why AI Matters Now: Filling the Estate Planning Gap with Wealth.com. It’s a conversation with Rafael Loureiro, the firm’s Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer. I’m Louis Diamond and this is the Diamond Podcast for Financial Advisors. Mindy Diamond: At Diamond Consultants, we help elite advisors identify the right environment for their businesses to thrive, whether that’s at a wire house, boutique, or independent firm. With nearly three decades of experience, we’ve guided thousands of advisors and represented more than a quarter of a trillion dollars in assets transitioned, and each year, one in four advisors managing a billion dollars or more who change firms are our clients. Our process is education driven and based on building relationships, starting as your strategic partner well before you’re even thinking of a move. To schedule a confidential conversation, call us at 908-879-1002. Wondering why advisors change firms and where they’re headed? Are transition deals going up or down? Those very questions and more inspired us to create our annual Advisor Transition Report. It’s the award-winning data-driven resource designed for advisors that connects the dots between the motivations around movement and the firm’s appetite for top talent. Arm yourself with the knowledge you need to make smart decisions. Download your copy at diamond-consultants.com/transitionreport. Louis Diamond: In the wealth management world, estate planning has largely lived in a separate lane. It’s a topic advisors may raise with clients then hand off to an attorney and eventually a set of documents come back, filed away, rarely revisited, and often disconnected from the rest of the planning process. That structure has been in place for a long time and for the most part, it’s gotten unquestioned, but when you step back, it creates a gap between what do clients expect from their advisor and what actually gets delivered when it comes to estate planning. Rafael Loureiro, co-founder and CEO of Wealth.com, ran straight into the gap after a planning event of his own which should have been a coordinated process, felt fragmented, manual, and surprisingly opaque. And likewise, I recall the same type of disjointed experience in my own estate planning process. It’s experiences like these that became the starting point for building Wealth.com. What makes this story interesting isn’t just that they’re using AI but how they’re using it inside the estate planning process, and it’s how AI allows the model itself to change from a one-time legal event to something that evolves alongside the client, from static documents to a system that can actually interpret, update, and surface what matters, from a disconnected handoff to something the advisor can actively lead. In my conversation with Rafael, we get into how that plays out in practice, how tools like Ester move from summarizing estate documents to identifying gaps, to prompting next steps, and eventually preparing action on behalf of the advisor, because when AI moves from simply organizing information to helping drive decisions, estate planning stops being a periodic task and starts to look more like a continuous part of the advice process. So let’s dive in. Rafael, thank you for coming on our show today. Rafael Loureiro: My pleasure, Louis. Thank you for having me here. Louis Diamond: Of course. Let’s jump in and in researching you and speaking to you in the past, I got to admit, you had a very different path into the wealth management industry probably than anyone I’ve ever interviewed. So can you walk us through your background briefly and early professional endeavors? Rafael Loureiro: Absolutely. The accent that you hear is Brazilian. So I’ve been in the US for 25 years. I’m a software engineer by trade, came here as a HMB, been involved with different companies over the years and then most recently before Wealth.com. I was a chief technology officer with a fraud prevention company, nothing to do with wealth management, but by selling that company, it’s how the Wealth.com story started. Louis Diamond: Perfect. And I was referring to also some of your early career endeavors even before founding your last company, if you’re comfortable sharing that. Rafael Loureiro: Yeah, absolutely. I’ve been involved with four different startups in different spaces. One of them was in, if you remember all the way back to 2008, the real estate prices, the first startup with foreclosures. So when houses went into foreclosures, me and my partner, we created a system to index that. I also had work on a photo album company. It became a lifetime business. It’s still running. I was the CTO and I did my share of consulting. I used to work for Accenture, Avanade, and then a home builder Fortune 500 companies. So I have a ton of experience in the technology space before Wealth.com. Louis Diamond: Perfect. And you mentioned the last business that you started that I believe sold to LexisNexis. Can you walk through what that business was? Rafael Loureiro: Yeah. So I did not start the business. I joined the business before Series A. The person that started the business, Rei Carvalho, he’s actually Wealth.com chairman. So the team is still together. The US, San Francisco, New York, offices in Sydney, Singapore, London. We serve clients like Coinbase, grew very fast and then got acquired by LexisNexis in 2020 during peak COVID. Think about, we literally signed the documents, popped the champagne on March 2020. No vaccine. Louis Diamond: Oh, my God. Rafael Loureiro: We literally popped the champagne and we all went back home to work from home because that was the guy that’s from LexisNexis. Through that experience, selling a company, one thing you usually do, it’s a big liquidity event and estate planning is always related to big moments. You get married, someone in your family die, you have a new kid, you have a liquidated event. So I work with a financial advisor. They’re amazing. They helped me with financial planning, wealth management, saved me a lot of money insurance. But when it was time to do the estate planning, Louis, my experience was, “Hey, Rafael, we always work with this lawyer, go talk to the lawyer.” And then it was a completely broken process. First, because it was COVID and I had to go see the lawyer face-to-face. That was weird right there. Second, because I was expecting the lawyer to know everything about me because my advisor knows everything about me, know about my life situation, know about liquid event, know about my kids, rental houses, everything and then the engineer. I know what I told the lawyer, but do I know for sure that everything I told the lawyer end up in the document? No, I don’t. Long story short, otherwise it is a long story, we’re having a virtual coffee. I don’t know if you remember everyone, big beard, long hair, everyone working from home, and then somehow all the Emailage C-level team and founders, the co-founders, we start complaining about state plan. Even another example, my chairman, the Wealth.com chairman, Emailage CEO, Rei Carvalho, he was like, “Hey, Rafael, I’m done with the summer heat in Arizona. I’m moving to Denver. I’m going for cooler weathers.” Literally the moment he moved to Denver, he gets a call from his estate planning lawyer, welcome him to Denver and saying, “Hey, we need to update your documents. “But I just spent thousands of dollars creating my documents.” “Yeah, but you live in a new state, you have to optimize your documents.” At that moment, Louis, we’re like, “Where there’s a problem, there is an opportunity,” and the company was born. Louis Diamond: I find the best company origin stories, it’s you have that, you have a personal experience or a moment where you have a realization that there’s a problem that you have that others might have as well, so let’s create a business around solving this problem. It was legitimately at that point, it wasn’t a long burn, we’re going to research, we’re really going to think about this, it was just all of the core team that was fortunate enough to have a big liquidity event were complaining and commiserating about a similar problem on estate planning and then that launched into, let’s build a company, let’s build a platform, a product to solve this problem? Rafael Loureiro: Yes and no. We saw the opportunity. We had just finished selling a company. It takes a lot from you and your family to create a company and to sell a company. Before we started a new company, we said, “Hey, look, we feel like there is something here, but let’s do the proper groundwork, make sure that the market is right, that there is a need that it’s not only us complaining about these.” I’m going to say that we spend a good three month, we have vision document together, doing a market research and then we got excited. Literally my wife who was not super excited in the beginning said, “You guys just sold a company. You’ve been racing 100 miles an hour for the last seven, eight years and you guys going to do this again.” But I love it. It’s part of my DNA. I love the challenge. I love to build and it is a big problem. When you look at the US market, 67% of the population don’t have estate planning. You have to ask yourself, why? Is that because it costs too much money? Is that because people don’t know enough about estate planning that they don’t do it? Is that because people don’t have to think about that? So the opportunity is there. We did the groundwork. We got the team together, at least some of our eight players. We went to Altus Capital, that’s the same venture firm that led the Emailage series B and we said, “Look, we have a vision, we have a team and we believe the market is ready for it. There is no dominant player and it is blue ocean.” And then they gave us the initial funding, them and my chairman, and then we went from having an idea to launching the product in May 2022. Louis Diamond: Wow, that’s amazing. Before we dive into the rapid growth and what the platform looks like, et cetera, can you just give us a quick overview of what Wealth.com looks like today? Who are you serving? Who are you selling to and where does it fit into an advisor’s value proposition or their advice stack, if you will? Rafael Loureiro: Absolutely. So Wealth.com we empower financial advisors to provide a family office experience to their clients starting with estate planning and tax planning. What I’m trying to solve, Louis, is my situation. I want my financial advisor to be the hub of my needs. So if the need is financial planning, wealth management, insurance, estate planning, tax planning, I need my financial advisor to be aware of all these verticals, right? Because I know if something happens to one of us, my financial advisor is my person. He or she’s going to get my call from my wife and say, “Hey, am I all right?” I want to empower the financial advisor with all the tools to provide that family office experience to their client. So that’s first, we started by providing doc migration. So think of this, you are mass affluent client, between half a million dollars all the way to 10 million dollars. You don’t have your revocable trust, your will, your power of attorney, your advanced healthcare directive, your guardianship documents. We do that. We create those documents. You go to the workflow on the Wealth.com platform if you have an advisor, I need to make that clear, we’re not direct to consumer business. You have to have an advisor. So you go to that workflow and at the end of the workflow, you get the documents. Those are legally optimized, all the documents. The document you get in California is going to be completely different from the document you get in New York, from the document you get in Florida. I just want to make that point clear. What we noticed, Louis, working with these advisors is if you look at the average advisor, if you look at his or her book of business, 80% is mass affluent. So think lawyers, doctors, firemen, 20% high net worth. Usually the high net worth clients, ultra-high network clients, they already have the documents. They already paid $20,000 to have those documents draft and we were not doing anything for them. So in 2022, we had that light bulb moment even before LLMs. OpenAI launched in 2022, we actually used the Bertha model before OpenAI, but I know I’m digressing. Let me get back here. So I was not doing anything for these high net worth, ultra-high net worth clients. So we had this idea, what if we use AI to read their existing plans, all their grants, LATs, all this sophisticated irrevocable trust, connect to all their assets and then provide a summary of everything they have in place? So that was the idea in 2022. Can we do it? And we did it and that became Ester and that became our family office experience. So just to summarize, we help the advisor clients regardless where they fall in the wealthy spectrum. They don’t have the estate planning documents, we create them. If they already have the estate planning documents, we use AI to read this documents, summarize them and provide insight and observations. “Hey, here are ways that you can optimize these documents.” That’s what we do. Louis Diamond: It’s so valuable. I wish I met you a month ago because I went through a very expensive estate planning exercise with an estate planning attorney and my own personal experience is exactly the same that you had. It’s expensive. I have no idea what I was signing. It was a long questionnaire and it wasn’t driven necessarily by my advisor. They gave me the idea to get updated estate plans, but it was a disconnected process. So this makes a ton of sense. I think let’s pull on the thread of being a direct to advisor company rather than trying to pull an end around the advisor and going directly to a consumer. Why was that an important design decision for you? Because I would assume the total adjustable market might be a little bit bigger if you’re going direct to a retail client that may or may not have an advisor versus going directly to a business, an RIA, a wealth management firm, et cetera. Rafael Loureiro: Yeah. What we notice working within these spaces, something triggers you to do your estate planning. I’m not going to ask why you decide to do yours now, but usually it’s related to death in the family, a kid going to college, you buy a new house, you have a new baby, you’re getting married, you get a divorce. Direct to consumer, you have to find the client at that moment for them to consider estate planning as an important thing to do. There’s actually surveys. I think Fidelity put a survey out, that says family is the main reason why people do estate planning. And the second reason is the advisor. So if you work with a financial advisor, most likely he or she’s going to make you do your estate planning. So we did not want to be on the direct to consumer place spending millions and millions of dollars in marketing. We’d rather spend millions and millions of dollars in AI and technology and serve the advisor and empower the advisor to have this conversation and go to you and say, “Hey, Louis, how is it possible that you don’t have your estate planning document? Let’s do this now.” And I know this is uncomfortable. There’s another survey that came out recently saying that some of the advisors don’t want to talk about that. It’s still a hard subject to approach, but we have to have this conversation. Louis Diamond: I would say it almost sounds like an advisor not wanting to talk about their fees. Let’s not talk about that because it’s uncomfortable and no one wants to hear about it. Rafael Loureiro: Oh, you have to have it because they saw a huge lack of education. For example, one thing that we come across all the time, and I know it’s minor, is kids going to college. “Oh yeah, my daughter’s going to college. I don’t have to do anything.” Yeah, you do. She needs an advanced healthcare directive because if you don’t have one and something happens to her, you cannot just go to the hospital and ask for information. They won’t give it to you. We need to educate our clients. We need to do a better job. And I think advisors play that role and we want to empower them to talk about estate planning and tax planning. Louis Diamond: It makes sense. It’s a brilliant strategy because instead of advisors selling against Wealth.com as like, “I can do better and I have a estate planning guy I can refer you to,” it’s you’re working alongside them and you rely upon the advisor to provide the education to be the trigger moment. And I know again, from personal experience, if my advisor didn’t suggest that I should update my estate planning documents because I moved states, I wouldn’t have done it. It’s not like a fun thing to do. It’s an expense, et cetera. So that makes a ton of sense. You’re partnering with the hub or the influencers, if you will, of who’s driving estate planning in this country. It’s a great strategy. Rafael Loureiro: And you said something very important and I want to highlight, the world is very different after COVID. Before COVID, some of these advisors, all their clients were in the same city. I had one estate planning lawyer to help my clients, right? But now with after COVID or during COVID, people moved. “Oh yeah, I’m not living in a farm. Oh, I moved to Montana. Montana is beautiful. I saw Landman or Yellowstone. Now I’m leaving Montana. Landman is in Texas.” How? Now you don’t have estate planning lawyer in Texas. You don’t have estate planning lawyer in Montana. With the right partnership with Wealth.com, now you can serve all your clients regardless where they are in the US because we are present in every jurisdiction and we have lawyers in every jurisdiction. So we empower you to serve clients regardless where they are in the US. Louis Diamond: Very cool. And how about the pricing model? You don’t have to say what it costs, but is it one license that a firm is buying on behalf of their entire client base or is there an incremental cost for each client? And I’m throwing a lot at you. And then third part of the question is, are you seeing advisors charge directly for the Wealth.com estate planning output or are folks wrapping it into their fee as just a value added service as part of their planning and comprehensive wealth management process? Rafael Loureiro: Very good question. My goal, our goal, has always been we want to make estate planning available, democratized estate planning, make it more accessible to the population. So the way we charge is we charge the advisor annual recurring fee. We do not charge per document. I want you to provide estate planning to all your clients. That’s our goal. I don’t want you to think, oh, but that’s going to cost me money. No, all your clients set them all up with estate planning. Are they charging? It depends. So the way I’m going to say this is, I’m going to say that 60% of my advisors are charging not for the documents because they’re not lawyers, they’re charging to help educate you on estate planning. You as a client, you have to go to the process yourself to get the documents. So that’s where an advisor would send an invitation to Wealth.com. You and your wife or your partner, you’re going to go to the workflow and you’re going to get the document at the end. But the advisor is going to set up a call with you, the advisor is going to help you collect the documents. The advisor is going to educate you why estate planning is important. And some of them are charging for this. Some of our advisors, more on the high net worth, alternate high net worth space, you already charge a very good fee to provide your service so they probably provide Ester output, I should say, as a value added service. It depends on the use case. Louis Diamond: Makes sense. So I’ve heard you talk in interviews about a major gap in estate planning between client expectations and what a client is expecting, hoping to get with estate planning, especially when it comes to interacting with their financial advisor and what is actually fundamentally delivered by advisors. So I’m curious, why is there a gap and why do you think that gap has existed for so long? Is it as simple as people don’t like talking about death and it’s expensive or is there a deeper answer? Rafael Loureiro: I think it’s all of the above and your experience is amazing. You pretty much, you are the typical client. You took long to do it. It costs you a lot of money. You’re now like, next time you have to do an update, you’re going to wait five to 10 years to do it because we spend thousands of dollars to get it updated. Why does it have to be like that? And now with AI, and that’s what I think is going to change a lot in the next five years, is why can we not have continuous estate planning? What I mean by that is work with your advisor. I have connection to all your assets. I have connection to CRM. I have connection to your bank account. If you give me access, I don’t need password, but you can actually connect all your assets, I have connection to the portfolio management platform. So as you live your life, as you get married, as you buy a property… You finally decide to buy a property in Tahoe, I get these pings and then I can empower your advisors to say, “Hey, go talk to Louis and say, hey, it’s time to update your estate plan.” Or a rental property outside your home state in California, you need to update your… Or he has just crossed a tax threshold or he just got married or he just had a new beneficiary. My goal is to empower the financial advisor to provide more and more value to this relationship. I’m not trying to replace the financial advisor, but I’m trying to empower him or her to give you more value so him or her becomes more critical for your relationship. Why people haven’t done estate planning I think is a lack of education, is the fear of the cost. “Oh, I have to talk to a lawyer. Oh my gosh, that’s going to cost me $5,000.” I want to make this easier. I want to make this simple. I want to empower the advisor to demystify estate planning and tax planning, make it more accessible, bring the estate planning more to the middle. What I mean by that is why is this estate planning exclusive to the high net worth, ultra-high net worth? Because in that space, 90% of the people have estate planning, 90% of the people. It’s the fear of the cost, I think, and then people don’t want to think about that. Louis Diamond: Yeah. I think that’s exactly right. Yeah. It very much sounds like it’s a win-win. It’s like a next best action type event where you’re giving an advisor on a silver platter a way to add value, which is what I think every advisor wants to do and then it’s a massive value add to the end client. My guess is you don’t have much friction in delivering those sorts of insights to advisors that they can then deliver to their clients. Rafael Loureiro: I would say if you’re not doing it, there is a big risk. You’re going to lose your clients to people that are doing it and they are providing the family office experience. Yeah. Louis Diamond: Yeah. What about the competitive landscape for Wealth.com, whether it’s other FinTechs that are attempting to do something in the space or even just the legacy advisor, the estate planning attorney in town or an advisor’s preferred T&E attorney. How do you think about the competitive landscape in the trust and estate world today? Rafael Loureiro: There are competitors. From day zero when we came in, there were competitors. I don’t see an incumbent. I think now we have became the incumbent. I think there is a segment of the market, just to paint a picture, one third of the advisors are going to retire in the next 10 years. So there is a segment in the market where to your point, they already work with a estate planning lawyer. That’s not a bad thing. They’re like, “Oh yeah, I get leads from this lawyer. My clients are all located in my neighborhood. I don’t need to provide out of state estate planning,” then we’re not going to get there.” But at the same time, if you look at our growth, we’ve been growing and that’s why we just raised a series B, our growth is out there to prove it, we’ve been tripling the company size every year. There’s a need, there’s a demand. Financial advisors are waking up. They are in a very competitive market. They need to provide more to the clients because I feel like investment management, it is becoming table stakes. Financial planning, it is table stakes. So what else can I offer my clients? And that’s why you see some advisory firms offering BillPay. I file your taxes. I’ll get your estate planning done. You got to differentiate yourself. We’re seeing the need. If you look at our penetration, we have now 2,000 firms on the platform and the firms go from independent, a small SMB advisor with one or two advisors in the office, all the way to the top three, three out of the top five banks in the US. We are there, right? Louis Diamond: Wow. It’s interesting. Let’s talk about that. So on the bank side, it’s typically not a segment that is ripe for technological disruption or external tools like this to come in and make a dent. How are banks and very large platforms thinking about Wealth.com? Is it a similar kind of buying journey or decision that an individual RIA or an individual advisor would make or is it a little bit different? Rafael Loureiro: It’s a little bit different. So without mentioning names, these banks, some of these banks that work with high net worth, ultra-high net worth clients, they were providing this summary report that Ester put together, they were, before Esther, but it was taking them 30 to 50 hours. All human labor to put one together, Excel, Visa, PowerPoint, 30 to 50 hours. Even to these very expensive, very wealthy clients, they were only doing once a year. “Hey, here’s your report.” “Oh yeah, but I just sold the house in St. Barts. Can I get a new update?” “No. Next year you’re going to get the update.” I’m not even kidding. It was serious. So they were doing the work, but it was all labor-intensive. Now with Wealth, a much better output, I should say, it’s take minutes. And instead of only reserving these to the very, very wealthy clients, now they can go downstream and offer this to their mass affluent clients and then high net worth clients. They’re all seeing the need. They’re all waking up because they were doing the work, but it was all labor-intensive, like I said, all manual before and they want to automate. Louis Diamond: Very interesting. I definitely want to spend some time talking about Ester. You mentioned it a few times, but before that, I’d say two very real strategic areas that a firm might take on when it comes to estate planning. The first one is a lot of very successful advisors, they cultivate amazing COI referral relationships with attorneys and usually the attorneys are T&E attorneys for obvious reasons. Have you gotten pushback or have you seen that because of Wealth.com, these advisors now are referring less business to these high-powered trust and estates attorneys and then they’re not able to grow their business as much in return. That’s one question if you can weigh in. Rafael Loureiro: I have not heard that. And just to clarify, I think with Wealth, having Wealth as part of your tool framework, you’re going to be able to serve more clients and still leverage your trust estate attorney. And I’ll explain how. For example, we know how to stay our lane. So let’s say you go into the workflow and as part of the workflow, you say, “Hey, I have a special needs child.” At that moment we say, “Stop. Let me put you in touch with a lawyer.” You can decide to use your own lawyer or you can use one of in our network. We have lawyers in every jurisdiction, but it’s up to you. We focus on the revocable trusts and the wealth. If your client requires something more sophisticated, you can still use Wealth.com to map out the client’s situation using Ester. You’re going to be able to see everything they have in place at that moment and then use your relationship, your trust and estate lawyer to make the document update. So I think what we are doing is reserving the most complex case for the trust and estate lawyer if a document needs update, but I don’t think you are breaking that relationship. That relationship will stay there and you’re still going to have that lead exchange, but I don’t have any numbers to answer your question. Louis Diamond: I think that makes sense. It’s not like with Wealth.com, at least not yet. It’s not like there isn’t a role for a T&E attorney and especially for more complex esoteric type situations, an advisor could still refer some of their relationships to a T&E attorney, but they’ll come armed with better information. And also with more clients getting involved with estate planning, there’s also conceivably more opportunities that they can refer out to an estate planning attorney in turn. Rafael Loureiro: Can I use that? You did a much better job than I did. Exactly. Exactly what you said. The difference is now your advisor, your clients are going to be much better informed, that they know exactly what they need from the lawyer. So yeah, 100%. Louis Diamond: Perfect. And then the other one, which is I’d say less commonplace, but it’s a trend. The trend, and you hit on it, that as investments are becoming commoditized or not as differentiated, advisors are being called on to offer more and more services, whether it’s tax preparation in-house or bill pay or picking up clients’ dry cleaning, et cetera. But I think a big area that I’ve seen firms invest in is an in -house trust and estate attorney. Do you think Wealth.com is taking some of the sizzle out of that in-house service or is it just different? Is it two different use cases? Rafael Loureiro: It’s two different uses cases and we actually sell to that use case where if you have your trust estate attorneys in-house, we actually leverage them and they become users on the platform. Going back to my previous answer, now with Wealth.com, you’re going to be able to serve more clients with estate planning. You can actually route some of the use cases back to your trust estate team through Wealth.com. They do whatever they have to do and then you’re able to serve more clients. An example, trust and estate lawyers, they had to read the documents before Wealth.com. They would spend countless hours reading a hundred-page documents. Now with Esther, we do the summarization. We show your trust estate team where all the information was extracted. So instead of reading one document per hour, you’re going to be able to read three documents per hour and visualize the client estate plan and be able to optimize it because we’ve provided insights and suggestions and then the trust and estate lawyer can provide their own and say, “Hey, no, I agree with this one,” or “I think we should also do this.” I think you’re going to optimize the use of your trust estate team. You’re not going to get rid of them. No. Louis Diamond: It’s more so you’re automating the high value differentiated work. It also kind of sounds like, I don’t know when eMoney or MoneyGuidePro came into the mainstream, but it’s almost a difference between a paraplanner for a firm, manually creating pie charts in Excel and PowerPoint and analyzing a bunch of stuff and then eMoney and MoneyGuidePro and NaviPlan and all these companies come about and all of a sudden a lot of the work is automated. And it’s not like a paraplanner is out of work. They just become the experts, the users of the platform and they can allocate their attention to higher value, more bespoke work rather than we’ll say more of the factory kind of below the line things that was taking up a lot of their time. Rafael Loureiro: Absolutely. I like to use the analogy of the shoemaker. In the past, the shoemaker would make one shoe. It would be a beautiful shoe, but he would make one shoe a week or every two days. Now you have specialized agents. All that agent does is read estate planning documents. All that agent does is enriching the documents with insight and observations and looking to all the legal law changes that happened recently. So now you’re able to still make the same high quality shoe, but just at a higher volume. And you have a lot of dedicated workers doing one thing and doing one thing extremely well. So my goal is to empower the shoemaker. My goal is to empower the advisor and with a thousand analysts, a thousand paraplanners. So just making my job more efficient. Louis Diamond: I love it. You fit in Ester a good bit. It seems fairly clear what Ester’s doing. Sounds like an amazing value add. Just given the pace of AI innovation and I don’t think anyone knows where it’s going, but what are you most excited about Ester being able to do either now or in the future and what’s the vision if you can project out a year, which seems like an eternity in AI time, what’s on the dream board for what Ester’s going to be able to do for your Wealth.com clients? Rafael Loureiro: As a technologist, I love this question. I see AI in three distinct phases. You had the first phase of Ester in 2022, 2023 when we launched, which was summaries. It was amazing summarizing data. Some of these clients, Louis, think about this, some of these clients, they have 13 documents in place. They had every type of irrevocable trust you can imagine plus a revocable trust in place. They had very complicated assets, very complex assets. So Ester was amazing in summarizing. That was phase number one. Phase number two is now being able to augment. You read the data, you see an opportunity and you create a task that’s right there in front of the advisor saying, “Hey, I think you should reach out to this client and include this report with some of these observations. Click this button if you agree.” You still involve the advisor, the human is still in the loop. And that’s what we are with Ester right now. We do that. We assess the data, we see the opportunity, we involve the advisor, advisor get involved and say, “Yes, let’s do this,” and click a button, an email is triggered, our report is attached. Here we go. The third phase and that’s coming next and very soon is now you have an agent acting on the behalf of the advisor. I still want to make sure, and I want to make this very clear, I don’t want to get myself in trouble, the devices always evolve, but you have all these specific agents, that’s tax planning agent, that’s the estate planning agent, work independently, connected to the world, extremely well-trained with thousands and thousands of documents that we’ve seen over the years, finding opportunities, creating the tasks, creating the emails, creating the report, having everything ready to go, just waiting for the advisor to say, “Do it.” And we do this enough to the point where the advisor is going to say, “All right, you don’t need my permission anymore to do this specific task. Go.” You connect to the IRS, you download the text transcript, you crunch to this data, you create a report and it’s ready to go. The other thing too is I want to be able, my goal in the next year, a year and a half, is I want to continue estate planning. Up to this point, estate planning has been exactly like you described. You go to a lawyer, you pay thousands and thousands of dollars and those documents start collecting dust in a shelf somewhere while you live your life. And being from this space, that’s not how it works. There is new legislation being passed OBBA became like you crossed tax threshold, you have liquidated events, you get married, you get divorced, you buy real estate property, so on and so forth and that document is already stale. Why does it have to be that way? Now with AI, now with the technology we have in place, it won’t be. I promise you. Louis Diamond: Very cool. That’s exciting. That sounds like the perfect evolution of AI from summary, just here’s something you can read quickly to suggesting action, to then taking action. It does seem like the flow that it’s been and I’m sure there’s 15 other flows from here that we don’t even know yet. Or you probably do because you’re in this, but for me, I can’t even imagine what phase four and five are going to look like for you. Rafael Loureiro: Yes, it’s exciting. Louis Diamond: Definitely is. I saw, when I was doing some research for this that Wealth.com announced a fairly major strategic partnership with Dynasty Financial Partners, embedding Ester into their Dynasty desktop. What do you think this partnership says about where the business is going and how do you expect advisors to really take advantage of this in practice? Rafael Loureiro: It was a new development. We’re super excited about the Dynasty Financial Partnership. Before, if you look at before this partnership, we would have to empower advisor one by one with a Wealth.com license. With this partnership with Dynasty, every advisor in the Dynasty family or using the Dynasty desktop is going to be able to use Ester. So they’re going to be furnished with an AI intelligence that they can ask any estate planning questions, they can get tax planning questions answered. They’re going to be able to upload their clients’ estate planning documents and get a summary with opportunities, with everything that they can do for those estate planning documents. I think it fits perfectly well for enterprise IRAs, wire houses, this solution. Instead of doing one by one, you can actually have AI for all your advisors at once answering their most basic questions and taking action. That’s literally like the agents I was trying to describe. So that’s just the first step in that direction and we’re super excited about this. Louis Diamond: Very cool. Let me ask you another one. So you said earlier that as investment management becomes more commoditized that advisors not only have to offer more services and provide more value, but they also have to differentiate from the advisor or the firm across the street to provide more family office services, if you will. But let’s say, and this will be great for you, Wealth.com becomes like air that everyone’s breathing. It almost becomes like financial planning tool, e-Money. It’s commonplace. Now it’s commoditized across the space, it’s not a differentiator anymore to offer financial planning. As Wealth.com expands more firms work with the platform, what do you think is the next layer or next level of differentiation that your clients then can point to if it’s no longer maybe a couple of years from now that we use Wealth.com that we help with estate planning? Rafael Loureiro: Wow, that’s an interesting one, and approach my wife and bring ideas and suggestions. For me, if I can make that happen where the financial advisor is helping with my taxes, so when it’s tax time, we just have to have a one-hour meeting and we’re ready to click a button and have everything done, that can help me with BillPay. And think about like high net worth and ultra-high net worth people where it becomes extremely complicated to do BillPay properly because you have to pay from the right account, from the right trust. If they can take this off my plate so I can focus 100% in my business and my family, it’s mission accomplished. If that means that they’re going to walk my dog to make this happen, I know I’m exaggerating here, but pick up my laundry like the example you use, I think you’re going to have to do this. That in my mind is how these financial advisors survive the AI revolution. It is that personal relationship. It’s knowing me well. It’s spending more time with me than once a quarter. And with AI, with the right AI, and I know AI, there’s a lot of smoke in this space and very little fire, but with the right agents, with the right workflows, one advisor is going to be able to serve more than a hundred clients. Because right now the ratio is a hundred clients per advisor, maybe you’re going to be able to serve like 200, 250 well. Serve them well, knowing them well, knowing them personally. I think that’s going to happen in the next couple of years. Louis Diamond: I think that’s right. It’s more so like the intangibles that an advisor has. Their secret sauce isn’t going to be necessarily we offer these seven things. It’s going to be, I really get you. I understand you. It’s the advisor’s personal relationship and empathy with that client and all the years that they’ve known them. And then it’s just using all these different tools to aid that relationship. It kind of sounds like that’s what you’re saying. It’s all the other stuff that advisors do that might be different today, over time, people catch up and that becomes commoditized similar to we offer financial planning and that’s a differentiator. Now it’s, if they don’t offer financial planning, it’s a problem. Rafael Loureiro: Yeah, 100%. You got it. Yes, it is the intangibles. That’s perfect. Louis Diamond: Okay. I got two more questions for you. What’s one thing you wish more advisors understood about estate planning that they still miss today? Rafael Loureiro: I think there is an education component. Just deploying Wealth.com and expecting is going to work with your clients. It’s not like that. You need to be willing to have the conversation like your advisor did it with you. You need to have the tough call and say, “Hey, are you ready? Do you have estate planning in place? Why not?” And then having that conversation. Louis Diamond: And I would imagine too, it’s also cool, I got all these documents so instead of it getting locked in the safe or locked in the drawer, it’s also incumbent on the advisor to explain the documents. “Hey, these are a bunch of stuff in here that whatever, we don’t have to get into, but here’s the four key things about this document that you should understand. The power of attorney we’ve nominated is your father-in-law. Your proceeds are going to get distributed one-third to your son, a quarter to your daughter,” et cetera. It’s going to be those things and translating the documents into real words that clients are going to understand. Rafael Loureiro: 100%. That is critical because I’m a software engineer, I’m not equipped to be reading a hundred pages document and trying to understand everything that’s there without … Now with AI, you can actually ask Claude to summarize and Gemini to summarize it, but that was not the case three years ago. So that education component is critical. And some of my advisors are actually very successful, I should say. A smaller firm in this case, I’m not going to say the names, I don’t have that permission to say their name, but they are actually doing these estate planning webinars as a lead generation. Because clients are curious about this. Sometimes if you don’t ask them, you’re never going to know, but they’re probably very curious about estate planning. They’re probably very concerned they don’t have the documents in place. Even the ones that have the documents, they’re probably concerned that they need an update and they haven’t done it. So by doing this webinar, they feel more comfortable just going to the event. They know they’re not going to be the center of attention and then asking a question or hear people asking questions. Some of my most successful clients are actually using webinar as a lead generation to explain state planning. Louis Diamond: It’s a great idea. It’s like you’re empowering the advisor to talk more about estate planning. It’s no longer this bugaboo that was too complex or not in their swim lane. It’s empowering them to lead with, it sounds like. Rafael Loureiro: 100% Louis Diamond: Amazing. And last question, if you were an ambitious advisor building a new firm from scratch today, what would you tell them to focus on to create a more durable, harder to replicate future-proof business? Rafael Loureiro: That’s a great question because the factory floor of a hundred years ago, is no longer work. If you have a chance to start from the beginning, it’s a new world. It’s a new world for companies like ours. Even for companies like ours that are in the bleeding edge of technology, everything is changing with AI. How I organize my teams is changing with AI. So I would say select Wealth.com. No, that’s … I’m kidding. I’m kidding, but yes, I’ll say select the right tools, use AI properly, it’s no longer a headcount game. I’m not saying you’re not going to need help, you’re going to need help, but make sure the tools are talking to each other because it is a new age. It’s an agent about speed, about being able to offer more service quicker, about increasing the relationship, the intangibles, to your point. It’s no longer once a quarter call to your clients. So if I had the chance to do everything again, if I had a chance even to start Wealth.com again, it’s different how you organize your team in this age of AI. AI is going to be bigger than the industrial revolution. Trust me, the shockwave is huge. To your point earlier in this call, we’re getting a big jump every month. It’s no longer every year, every month there is something new coming from AI. So if you start your firm again, select the right partners, select the right tools and then hit the ground running. Louis Diamond: Perfect. That’s amazing. Rafael, this has been so fun. I learned a ton from you. You just have a way of storytelling and I absolutely love the why behind Wealth.com, the personal experience that probably a lot of listeners have had as the light bulb moment. And instead of just complaining about it, you actually took action and now are creating the future of estate planning, empowering advisors to offer estate planning to their clients, getting more folks in this country set up with trust and estates and wills, et cetera. So I think it’s amazing what you’re doing and I’m very excited to continue to watch your success. Rafael Loureiro: Thank you. Thank you for the opportunities and just to do a final plug, estate planning, tax planning, stay tuned. There is more coming. Louis Diamond: There we go. Thanks so much. Rafael Loureiro: Thank you. Mindy Diamond: As a financial advisor, you hold yourself to the highest standards of integrity, honesty, and credibility. You are successful because you take your professional responsibility seriously and are dedicated to your clients. But are you living your best business life? Are your goals aligned with your firms or could a better option exist? Should I Stay or Should I Go? is a book written with you in mind it’s a self-guided journey that walks you through the key steps that we take with our advisor clients. This strategic thought process and roadmap to professional self-discovery is designed to help you ask the right questions and think critically and objectively, whether you’re considering change or not. Learn how to get your copy at diamond-consultants.com/thebook. Why AI Matters Now: Filling the Estate Planning Gap with Wealth.com A conversation with Louis Diamond and Rafael Loureiro, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer at Wealth.com. Louis Diamond: Welcome to the latest episode of our podcast series for financial advisors. Today’s episode is Why AI Matters Now: Filling the Estate Planning Gap with Wealth.com. It’s a conversation with Rafael Loureiro, the firm’s Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer. I’m Louis Diamond and this is the Diamond Podcast for Financial Advisors. Mindy Diamond: At Diamond Consultants, we help elite advisors identify the right environment for their businesses to thrive, whether that’s at a wire house, boutique, or independent firm. With nearly three decades of experience, we’ve guided thousands of advisors and represented more than a quarter of a trillion dollars in assets transitioned, and each year, one in four advisors managing a billion dollars or more who change firms are our clients. Our process is education driven and based on building relationships, starting as your strategic partner well before you’re even thinking of a move. To schedule a confidential conversation, call us at 908-879-1002. Wondering why advisors change firms and where they’re headed? Are transition deals going up or down? Those very questions and more inspired us to create our annual Advisor Transition Report. It’s the award-winning data-driven resource designed for advisors that connects the dots between the motivations around movement and the firm’s appetite for top talent. Arm yourself with the knowledge you need to make smart decisions. Download your copy at diamond-consultants.com/transitionreport. Louis Diamond: In the wealth management world, estate planning has largely lived in a separate lane. It’s a topic advisors may raise with clients then hand off to an attorney and eventually a set of documents come back, filed away, rarely revisited, and often disconnected from the rest of the planning process. That structure has been in place for a long time and for the most part, it’s gotten unquestioned, but when you step back, it creates a gap between what do clients expect from their advisor and what actually gets delivered when it comes to estate planning. Rafael Loureiro, co-founder and CEO of Wealth.com, ran straight into the gap after a planning event of his own which should have been a coordinated process, felt fragmented, manual, and surprisingly opaque. And likewise, I recall the same type of disjointed experience in my own estate planning process. It’s experiences like these that became the starting point for building Wealth.com. What makes this story interesting isn’t just that they’re using AI but how they’re using it inside the estate planning process, and it’s how AI allows the model itself to change from a one-time legal event to something that evolves alongside the client, from static documents to a system that can actually interpret, update, and surface what matters, from a disconnected handoff to something the advisor can actively lead. In my conversation with Rafael, we get into how that plays out in practice, how tools like Ester move from summarizing estate documents to identifying gaps, to prompting next steps, and eventually preparing action on behalf of the advisor, because when AI moves from simply organizing information to helping drive decisions, estate planning stops being a periodic task and starts to look more like a continuous part of the advice process. So let’s dive in. Rafael, thank you for coming on our show today. Rafael Loureiro: My pleasure, Louis. Thank you for having me here. Louis Diamond: Of course. Let’s jump in and in researching you and speaking to you in the past, I got to admit, you had a very different path into the wealth management industry probably than anyone I’ve ever interviewed. So can you walk us through your background briefly and early professional endeavors? Rafael Loureiro: Absolutely. The accent that you hear is Brazilian. So I’ve been in the US for 25 years. I’m a software engineer by trade, came here as a HMB, been involved with different companies over the years and then most recently before Wealth.com. I was a chief technology officer with a fraud prevention company, nothing to do with wealth management, but by selling that company, it’s how the Wealth.com story started. Louis Diamond: Perfect. And I was referring to also some of your early career endeavors even before founding your last company, if you’re comfortable sharing that. Rafael Loureiro: Yeah, absolutely. I’ve been involved with four different startups in different spaces. One of them was in, if you remember all the way back to 2008, the real estate prices, the first startup with foreclosures. So when houses went into foreclosures, me and my partner, we created a system to index that. I also had work on a photo album company. It became a lifetime business. It’s still running. I was the CTO and I did my share of consulting. I used to work for Accenture, Avanade, and then a home builder Fortune 500 companies. So I have a ton of experience in the technology space before Wealth.com. Louis Diamond: Perfect. And you mentioned the last business that you started that I believe sold to LexisNexis. Can you walk through what that business was? Rafael Loureiro: Yeah. So I did not start the business. I joined the business before Series A. The person that started the business, Rei Carvalho, he’s actually Wealth.com chairman. So the team is still together. The US, San Francisco, New York, offices in Sydney, Singapore, London. We serve clients like Coinbase, grew very fast and then got acquired by LexisNexis in 2020 during peak COVID. Think about, we literally signed the documents, popped the champagne on March 2020. No vaccine. Louis Diamond: Oh, my God. Rafael Loureiro: We literally popped the champagne and we all went back home to work from home because that was the guy that’s from LexisNexis. Through that experience, selling a company, one thing you usually do, it’s a big liquidity event and estate planning is always related to big moments. You get married, someone in your family die, you have a new kid, you have a liquidated event. So I work with a financial advisor. They’re amazing. They helped me with financial planning, wealth management, saved me a lot of money insurance. But when it was time to do the estate planning, Louis, my experience was, “Hey, Rafael, we always work with this lawyer, go talk to the lawyer.” And then it was a completely broken process. First, because it was COVID and I had to go see the lawyer face-to-face. That was weird right there. Second, because I was expecting the lawyer to know everything about me because my advisor knows everything about me, know about my life situation, know about liquid event, know about my kids, rental houses, everything and then the engineer. I know what I told the lawyer, but do I know for sure that everything I told the lawyer end up in the document? No, I don’t. Long story short, otherwise it is a long story, we’re having a virtual coffee. I don’t know if you remember everyone, big beard, long hair, everyone working from home, and then somehow all the Emailage C-level team and founders, the co-founders, we start complaining about state plan. Even another example, my chairman, the Wealth.com chairman, Emailage CEO, Rei Carvalho, he was like, “Hey, Rafael, I’m done with the summer heat in Arizona. I’m moving to Denver. I’m going for cooler weathers.” Literally the moment he moved to Denver, he gets a call from his estate planning lawyer, welcome him to Denver and saying, “Hey, we need to update your documents. “But I just spent thousands of dollars creating my documents.” “Yeah, but you live in a new state, you have to optimize your documents.” At that moment, Louis, we’re like, “Where there’s a problem, there is an opportunity,” and the company was born. Louis Diamond: I find the best company origin stories, it’s you have that, you have a personal experience or a moment where you have a realization that t
The Democrats' leading candidate for governor, Xavier Becerra, claims he was the victim of a financial fraud directed by his own chief of staff in the Biden administration. Now, he's dealing with claims that he greenlit the crime. Bonus track! Lance Christensen takes us deep into the state capitol. Music by Metalachi. Email Us:dbahnsen@thebahnsengroup.comwill@calpolicycenter.org Follow Us:@DavidBahnsen@WillSwaim@TheRadioFreeCA Show Notes: The Mussel Slough Tragedy Governor Newsom announces revised budget that eliminates California's deficit, maintains investments for working families, healthcare, education, and businesses LAO: Initial Comments on the Governor's May Revision Former Newsom chief of staff pleads guilty to scheme that bled money from Becerra's account A surge in Nevada data center construction threatens the electricity supply for 49,000 Californians Energy company disputes claim that 50,000 Tahoe residents will lose power next yea California's Bullet Train May Not Even Reach Downtown Bakersfield - You Can't Make This Up Pelosi endorses a successor in San Francisco's testy House race San Francisco's Outdoor Smoking Ban Won't Improve Public Health, but It Will Hurt the City's Bars and Taverns UC Davis festival apologizes for drum circle: ‘cultural appropriation' Pre-roll:Duke Energy Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Jeff Pensiero is a talented snowboarder and musician, but he was born to be an entrepreneur...and he knew that from an early age. Jeff grew up learning to move on after losing, which every pre Lebron Cleveland sports fan knows all about. Not being afraid to lose along with many traits taught Jeff not only to roll with the punches and preservere, but to take advantage of the opportunities and take risks that make him happy. And from Kemper to K2, to being "The Guy with a Truck" to founding and building Baldface Lodge in his 20's, Jeff's life is all about moving forward and not looking back. On the podcast we talk about building snowboarding in Tahoe for K2, chasing a girl to Canada, founding a lodge, Travis Rice, Craig Kelly, and more. Jeff does a lot of interviews, this one is a little different. Old School K2 Pro and rad dude, Tim Manning asks the Inappropriate Questions. Jeff Pensiero Show Notes: 4:00: Roman Candles, injuries, Cleveland, skiing, Sun Valley, music, proctor academy, and Kemper 22:00: Elan Skis: Over 75 years of innovation that makes you better. 23:00: K2, building snowboarding in Tahoe, rep life, Glissade/Crap/Soup Kitchen, the life changing heli trip, the crew that helps make Baldface 40:30: Outdoor Research: The best is designed and tested in the brutal conditions of the PNW and beyond 42:00: Building Baldface in the face of 9/11, the impact on Nelson, buying snowcats, losing Craig Kelly, the roof caves in, rebuilding, the Supernatural effect, renouncing his US citizenship, and what makes Travis, craig, and a few others, different. 63:00: Inappropriate Questions with Tim Manning
The trail running world never sleeps! We cover race results from Zegama, Snowdonia, Ultra-Trail Australia, and Rothrock, the return of the original, single-loop course for the Tahoe 200, Caleb Olson's foray into full-time ultrarunning, and the latest from Satisfy's marketing playbook.Partners:Precision Fuel and Hydration - use code SINGLETRACK at checkout for 15% off your next orderNorda - check out the 005: the lightest, fastest, most stable trail racing shoe ever madeRaide - Making equipment for efficient human-powered movement in the mountains Janji - running gear that goes the distanceSupport the show
Story of the Week (DR):Trump is bringing Tim Cook, Elon Musk, and a dozen other CEOs to Beijing for his Xi summitTechnology & AIElon Musk – CEO, Tesla and SpaceXTim Cook – CEO, AppleJensen Huang – CEO, Nvidia (joined as a last-minute addition after a personal call from the President)Cristiano Amon – CEO, QualcommSanjay Mehrotra – CEO, Micron TechnologyDina Powell McCormick – President, MetaJim Anderson – CEO, CoherentFinance & InvestmentLarry Fink – CEO, BlackRockStephen Schwarzman – CEO, BlackstoneDavid Solomon – CEO, Goldman SachsJane Fraser – CEO, CitigroupAerospace & ManufacturingKelly Ortberg – CEO, Boeing (reportedly finalizing a massive 500-jet deal during the trip)Larry Culp – CEO, GE AerospacePayments & ServicesMichael Miebach – CEO, MastercardRyan McInerney – CEO, VisaAgriculture & BiotechBrian Sikes – CEO, CargillJacob Thaysen – CEO, IlluminaPaypal agrees to $30 million settlement with Trump's Justice Department over 'illegal DEI'The company launched a $530M Economic Opportunity Fund in 2020 for Black and underrepresented minority businessesDid not fight this in court, just surrenderedTo make the DOJ happy, PayPal had to ditch its race-based criteria; instead, it now funnels that financial support to veteran-owned businesses and companies in farming, manufacturing, or technology. A direct “black” to “white” transferAny company that launched a race-specific grant or loan program after 2020 is now officially in the DOJ's crosshairs, and "social justice" is being litigated as "civil rights fraud."PayPal board:“Independent” chair David W. Dorman (2015-; 17%)member of the Dell Technologies BoardMichael Dell and Donald Trump are BFFs: Dell pledged $6.25B to Trump AccountsJonathan Christodoro (2015-; 13%): a disciple of billionaire Carl Icahn (former Managing Director at Icahn Capital), one of Trump's oldest and most vocal alliesFounder PayPal Mafia Trump BFFs: Musk (DOGE), David Sacks (AI and Crypto Czar), Peter Thiel (JD Vance creator)Frank Yeary (2015-; 12%): Intel director since 2009 and chair since 2023It Was One of DOGE's Most Absurd Abuses. A Court Finally Exposed ItThis whole saga centers on a major legal showdown between the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The case is a consolidated lawsuit (often called the NEH-DOGE lawsuit) filed in May 2025 by groups including the Authors Guild, the American Historical Association, and the Modern Language Association. On May 7, 2026, U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon issued a massive 143-page ruling. She essentially nuked DOGE's attempt to defund hundreds of humanities projects, calling their process a "textbook example of unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination."The AI Purge: Instead of a professional review, DOGE staffers (described in court as young "technologists" with no background in humanities) ran thousands of grant descriptions through ChatGPT.DOGE staffers—mostly described as 20-somethings with "zero experience in the humanities"—attempted to dodge government transparency laws by conducting official business on Signal with auto-delete enabled. The court found this was a blatant violation of the Federal Records Act, proving that "efficiency" is often just code for "avoiding a paper trail."The Woke Filter: They told the AI to flag anything related to "DEI." This backfired spectacularly when the AI flagged projects on Holocaust survivors, Appalachian history, and Italian-American archives simply because they used words like "identity," "culture," or "women."DOGE didn't actually read the grants they cut. Instead, they used ChatGPT and basic keyword searches to flag any program containing "incriminating" words like "history," "culture," "identity," or "BIPOC." If the AI thought it sounded "woke," the funding was axed—a move Judge Colleen McMahon called a "textbook example of unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination."In perhaps the most "mask-off" moment of the proceedings, it was revealed that DOGE staffers flagged and canceled a documentary about Jewish women's slave labor during the Holocaust. The reason? Their AI-driven filter decided that focusing on "Jewish cultures" and "female voices" made it an illegal DEI program. Apparently, documenting Nazi atrocities is now "radical identity politics."The ruling highlighted a minor detail the administration seemed to forget: DOGE isn't a real government agency. The judge noted that DOGE had absolutely no lawful authority to terminate congressionally appropriated funds. They were essentially a group of private-sector bros playing President with the NEH checkbookThe Redirect: The court found that the $100 million "saved" wasn't actually returned to the Treasury. Instead, it was being funneled into the administration's own projects, like the "National Garden of American Heroes."Why Two Big Companies Just Cut Paid Family Leave MMFor the last decade, a tight labor market forced companies to compete for talent with generous perks. Now, with the job market cooling and employees having less leverage to quit, companies like Deloitte and Zoom are quietly rolling back benefits.Zoom, the company that became the face of remote work, has slashed its paid parental leave. Birthing parents saw their leave drop from up to 24 weeks to 18 weeks, while non-birthing parents were cut from 16 weeks down to 10.Deloitte is making deep cuts, but not for everyone. The reductions specifically target “Center” employees—the administrative, IT, and finance support staff who generally earn less—rather than the high-earning consultants. Their leave was halved from 16 weeks to just eight.Beyond just time off, Deloitte is axing its $50,000 reimbursement program for adoption, surrogacy, and IVF for these support roles.I Hate Working 5 Days': Zoom CEO Eric Yuan Says AI Could Shrink Workweeks To 3 Days In A Major Future ShiftGoodliest of the Week (MM/DR):DR: Chipotle CEO [Scott Boatwright] tells customers to ‘just ask' if they want bigger portions after downsizing accusations: “You should ask for a little more ... We serve big, beautiful bowls and burritos. Full stop, no questions asked. If you want more, just ask the team member. I promise you there's never a team member on that line that's going to say no.” 886 to 1MM: Oil shortages DR MMBeer demand stumbles as gas prices surge, data showsI mean, isn't this the double best? Less idiots driving drunk AND less idiots DRIVING!Oil shortages are even hitting colored snack bagsUgly snacks, maybe less eating!Assholiest TRIGGERIEST of the Week (MM):Brett BlundyVictoria's Secret unveils allegations against activist investor, loses board directorBlundy, Australian billionaire who launched Bras N Things, a classy establishment sold to Hanes, and currently chairs Lovisa, a fast fashion jewelry business, bought 13% of VS and thinks he can run it betterHe's disappointed with VS acquisition of Adore Me (online retailer) and the drop in earningsMeanwhile, Lovisa's 1Y market returns: -22% vs. ASX +4% TRIGGERED:Blundy, a fucking Australian billionaire blowhard, chairs LovisaLovisa board: Blundy, Mark McInnes (“deputy chair”), John Cheston (CEO), Bruce Carter, Tracey Blundy (wife), John Charlton, Sei Jin Alt (woman, Asian)Brett and Tracey own 40%+ of sharesZero merit directorsExec team: John, Mark, Victor, Chris - zero womenBlundy is targeting VS, whose board is…Donna James, Hillary Super (CEO), Irene Britt, Sarah Davis, Jacqueline Hernandez, Rod Little, David McCreight, Mariam Naficy, Lauren Peters, Anne SheehanExec team: 4 women, 1 manThis is the ultimate mansplain - some chest thumping billionaire walks into a room full of women, pushes them out, takes over… and this from the filing:“On November 13, 2025, members of the Board held a videoconference call with Mr. Blundy to inform him that the Board had determined, in accordance with its fiduciary duties, that appointing Mr. Blundy to the Board would not be in the best interests of VS&Co or its stockholders. In an effort to reach amutually agreeable resolution, the Board proposed collaborating with BBRC and Mr. Blundy on (i) adding one mutually-agreed new independent directornot affiliated with BBRC to the Board, (ii) Mr. Blundy's participation in a review with the Board of the Company's capital allocation, (iii) entering into alonger-term information sharing agreement and, in the context of a negotiated resolution with BBRC and Mr. Blundy, an agreement on customary standstill restrictions, and (iv) taking down the Rights Plan. After this call, the Board delivered to Mr. Blundy the following letter explaining its rationale for rejecting his candidacy and proposing a new framework for a mutually agreeable resolution:“The potential for significant reputational and legal risk to Victoria's Secret arising from (1) your pattern of hiring executives with a history of serious allegations of sexual harassment or other misconduct, and (2) the reported and alleged instances of harassment and highly inappropriate employee policies that occurred under your oversight at companies you controlled or effectively controlled.The proxy should just say, “Australian white male billionaire who is cool sexually harassing women while selling them underwear wants to take over massive underwear store run by women”Elon Musk and Sam AltmanMusk first…Sam Altman Accuses Elon Musk of Laughing at Memes During Important OpenAI MeetingsMusk's China trip during OpenAI trial prompts apology from his lawyer for CEO's absenceTRIGGERED: This is the man child trillionaire we're supposed to take seriously - does his mom fold his socks for him? Does he eat Cheerios out of a frisbee for breakfast? These are our male adult role models?Musk apparently was too busy for the trial, but during talks of absorbing OpenAI into Tesla, he wasn't too busy to spend a long time forcing everyone to look at his fucking dopey idiot manboy memes that made him laughReminder time: Musk is in charge of who gets internet in military conflict (Starlink), gutted the government (DOGE), is trying to implant chips in brains (Neurolink), and used everyone else to get his billions (Tesla was bought, subsidized, SpaceX subsidies, Boring Company steals municipal money to dig holes…)Altman next…Sam Altman faces awkward grilling over 'toxic culture of lying'ChatGPT Told a 19-Year-Old How to Mix Drugs — His Mother Found Him Dead the Next MorningWHEN YOU PUT A SOCIOPATH AND MANCHILD IN CHARGE OF A WORLD DESTROYING DEVICE, IT TURNS OUT IT'S BADWarren Buffett DRPut the folksy “I'm just a guy eating a werther's original candy making money” schtick aside, where he says they pick great management and let them do their thing - this is “their thing”:TRIGGERED: Electric Company Says It's Cutting Off an Entire Town So It Can Sell All Its Power to Data CentersThere is so much to hate here:Tech billionaires building data centers for AI: checkNV Energy is wholly owned by Berkshire Energy which is owned by Warren Buffett: checkTrump appointed asshole running regulatory agency that represented utilities: checkThe town is Lake Tahoe - 50,000 residents have to find a new source of electricity in ONE YEAR because Buffett/Berkshire/NV Energy decided the re-route all energy to data centers for AIGoogle, Apple, MSFT all have facilities, 12 data center projects in Northern NevadaNevada would have to ask woke California to build hundreds of millions of dollars worth of transmission lines in a year to get to Tahoe, FERC would have to approve other changes (Chair Laura Swett, Trump appointee, represented electric utilities and the firm wrote pieces about the glory of data centers - one of the Amicus Briefs they wrote in 2024 was on behalf of… NV Energy)Of the fines issued by FERC this year, 99% are one company: an energy efficiency companySince Trump was elected, FERC has issued fines targeting blue state utilities and renewables at a more than 2:1 rateSo the people are fucked - maybe Warren can tell them to power their town on See's Candy sugar rushesHeadliniest of the WeekDR: Kids with fake mustaches can fool high-tech age verification systemsMM: Waymo recalls 3,800 robotaxis after glitch allowed some vehicles to 'drive into standing water'Who Won the Week?DR: Steve Roth, the CEO of Vornado Realty Trust, expressed his support for fellow billionaire and the Citadel CEO Ken Griffin: “I must say that I consider the phrase tax the rich — quote tax the rich — when spit out with anger and contempt by politicians both here and across the country, to be just as hateful as some disgusting racial slurs”MM: Lawyers - literally everything now is a lawsuit and everyone is a lawyer. PredictionsDR: NYC Mayor Mahmdani asks Steve Roth for “just little more” and Roth replies: “I'm not a fucking Chipotle, commie scum.”MM: Chili's CEO wakes up at 5 a.m., runs daily, and uses that time to generate ideas for the business: On a run next Thursday, May 21, Chili's CEO Kevin Hochman stops short and says out loud, “What if the Big Crispy Chicken Sandwich was BIGGER???”
Stephon Diggs court battle with the BBL chef and Tahoe tells a story to explain why he empathizes with the chef in this situation. The D4vd situation, Boston Richie and...ENJOY!
Benjamin and Chance discuss changes to the Apple education store, the cool new Apple Developer icon, rumors about some design changes for iOS 27 and macOS 27, and whether we can think of anything compelling AirPods with cameras could be used for. And in Happy Hour Plus, we discuss the state of iOS keyboard autocorrect and dictation accuracy.. Subscribe at 9to5mac.com/join. Sponsored by Copilot Money: Get two months free with code 9TO5MAC at copilot.money/9to5mac. Sponsored by Framer: The only free design tool that brings your ideas to the web. Visit framer.com/happyhour for 30% off a Framer Pro annual plan. Sponsored by Quince: Refresh your wardrobe with Quince. Visit quince.com/happyhour for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Hosts Chance Miller @ChanceHMiller on Twitter @ChanceHMiller on Instagram @ChanceHMiller on Threads Benjamin Mayo @bzamayo on Twitter @bzamayo@mastodon.social @bzamayo on Threads Subscribe, Rate, and Review Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify 9to5Mac Happy Hour Plus Subscribe to 9to5Mac Happy Hour Plus! Support Benjamin and Chance directly with Happy Hour Plus! 9to5Mac Happy Hour Plus includes: Ad-free versions of every episode Pre- and post-show content Bonus episodes Join for $5 per month or $50 a year at 9to5mac.com/join. Feedback Submit #Ask9to5Mac questions on Twitter, Mastodon, or Threads Email us feedback and questions to happyhour@9to5mac.com Links Apple Developer app gains Liquid Glass design and WWDC 2026 iMessage stickers Apple now requires verification for Education Store, adds Apple Watch with discounts iOS 26.5 adds end-to-end encryption for RCS messaging, rolling out now iOS 26.5 now available: Here are all the new iPhone features Apple hits milestone in development of AirPods with cameras: report Report: macOS 27 to feature UI tweaks to address some Tahoe design complaints Apple Plans Customizable iPhone Camera App, Siri Overhaul: iOS 27 - Bloomberg iOS 27's upgraded Camera app will be ‘fully customizable,' per report iOS 27 to make key design changes to ‘streamline' Liquid Glass: report iOS 27's ‘completely rebuilt' Siri will include a new system-wide search gesture: report Gemini Intelligence brings gen UI, Gboard 'Rambler' to Android Gemini Intelligence brings proactive AI to Android
If you purchased an iPhone between June 2024 and March 2025, you could receive a payment from the $250 million settlement over Apple's intelligence features on iPhones! Apple could be using Intel chips again in future Apple products. More Mac mini and Mac Studio models are no longer available on the Apple Store. And Apple is now requiring verification for education discounts. US Supreme Court declines to pause order holding Apple in contempt in Epic Games lawsuit. iPhone users could get up to $95 per device as Apple reaches $250M settlement over Siri delays Apple reportedly has a deal to use Intel-made chips again. Intel's stock jumped 13% today over Apple chip manufacturing report Additional Mac mini and Mac Studio models cut from the Apple Store website as AI data centers strain available RAM, SSD supplies Apple requires verification for education discounts, ENDS discounts for k-12 unless you're homeschooled. Tim Cook among CEOs confirmed for President Trump's China trip. More refunds possible for Apple as Trump's 10% global tariffs found illegal too. Apple releases tvOS 26.5, HomePod 26.5, and visionOS 26.5. Apple to make design changes in macOS 27 to address Tahoe quirks. Here's how I finally got Google's uninvited 4GB AI model off my Mac. macOS 27 threatens to bury Time Capsule, FOSS brings a shovel. Apple kicks off new run of A18 Pro chips as MacBook Neo demand exceeds expectations. Not dead yet: Apple Vision still has a future. visionOS 27 will bring these new Vision Pro upgrades. The $1 Steve Jobs coin. Google denies copying Apple's Liquid Glass design for Android. You can purchase Apple's Mac Pro wheels kit for $699. Picks of the Week Leo's Pick: whatcable Christina's Pick: Obsidian's Plugin Site Andy's Pick: Snapseed Photo Editor Jason's Picks: Indigo & Gnome Hosts: Leo Laporte, Andy Ihnatko, Jason Snell, and Christina Warren Download or subscribe to MacBreak Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/macbreak-weekly. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: zocdoc.com/macbreak scribe.how/macbreak
If you purchased an iPhone between June 2024 and March 2025, you could receive a payment from the $250 million settlement over Apple's intelligence features on iPhones! Apple could be using Intel chips again in future Apple products. More Mac mini and Mac Studio models are no longer available on the Apple Store. And Apple is now requiring verification for education discounts. US Supreme Court declines to pause order holding Apple in contempt in Epic Games lawsuit. iPhone users could get up to $95 per device as Apple reaches $250M settlement over Siri delays Apple reportedly has a deal to use Intel-made chips again. Intel's stock jumped 13% today over Apple chip manufacturing report Additional Mac mini and Mac Studio models cut from the Apple Store website as AI data centers strain available RAM, SSD supplies Apple requires verification for education discounts, ENDS discounts for k-12 unless you're homeschooled. Tim Cook among CEOs confirmed for President Trump's China trip. More refunds possible for Apple as Trump's 10% global tariffs found illegal too. Apple releases tvOS 26.5, HomePod 26.5, and visionOS 26.5. Apple to make design changes in macOS 27 to address Tahoe quirks. Here's how I finally got Google's uninvited 4GB AI model off my Mac. macOS 27 threatens to bury Time Capsule, FOSS brings a shovel. Apple kicks off new run of A18 Pro chips as MacBook Neo demand exceeds expectations. Not dead yet: Apple Vision still has a future. visionOS 27 will bring these new Vision Pro upgrades. The $1 Steve Jobs coin. Google denies copying Apple's Liquid Glass design for Android. You can purchase Apple's Mac Pro wheels kit for $699. Picks of the Week Leo's Pick: whatcable Christina's Pick: Obsidian's Plugin Site Andy's Pick: Snapseed Photo Editor Jason's Picks: Indigo & Gnome Hosts: Leo Laporte, Andy Ihnatko, Jason Snell, and Christina Warren Download or subscribe to MacBreak Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/macbreak-weekly. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: zocdoc.com/macbreak scribe.how/macbreak
If you purchased an iPhone between June 2024 and March 2025, you could receive a payment from the $250 million settlement over Apple's intelligence features on iPhones! Apple could be using Intel chips again in future Apple products. More Mac mini and Mac Studio models are no longer available on the Apple Store. And Apple is now requiring verification for education discounts. US Supreme Court declines to pause order holding Apple in contempt in Epic Games lawsuit. iPhone users could get up to $95 per device as Apple reaches $250M settlement over Siri delays Apple reportedly has a deal to use Intel-made chips again. Intel's stock jumped 13% today over Apple chip manufacturing report Additional Mac mini and Mac Studio models cut from the Apple Store website as AI data centers strain available RAM, SSD supplies Apple requires verification for education discounts, ENDS discounts for k-12 unless you're homeschooled. Tim Cook among CEOs confirmed for President Trump's China trip. More refunds possible for Apple as Trump's 10% global tariffs found illegal too. Apple releases tvOS 26.5, HomePod 26.5, and visionOS 26.5. Apple to make design changes in macOS 27 to address Tahoe quirks. Here's how I finally got Google's uninvited 4GB AI model off my Mac. macOS 27 threatens to bury Time Capsule, FOSS brings a shovel. Apple kicks off new run of A18 Pro chips as MacBook Neo demand exceeds expectations. Not dead yet: Apple Vision still has a future. visionOS 27 will bring these new Vision Pro upgrades. The $1 Steve Jobs coin. Google denies copying Apple's Liquid Glass design for Android. You can purchase Apple's Mac Pro wheels kit for $699. Picks of the Week Leo's Pick: whatcable Christina's Pick: Obsidian's Plugin Site Andy's Pick: Snapseed Photo Editor Jason's Picks: Indigo & Gnome Hosts: Leo Laporte, Andy Ihnatko, Jason Snell, and Christina Warren Download or subscribe to MacBreak Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/macbreak-weekly. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: zocdoc.com/macbreak scribe.how/macbreak
If you purchased an iPhone between June 2024 and March 2025, you could receive a payment from the $250 million settlement over Apple's intelligence features on iPhones! Apple could be using Intel chips again in future Apple products. More Mac mini and Mac Studio models are no longer available on the Apple Store. And Apple is now requiring verification for education discounts. US Supreme Court declines to pause order holding Apple in contempt in Epic Games lawsuit. iPhone users could get up to $95 per device as Apple reaches $250M settlement over Siri delays Apple reportedly has a deal to use Intel-made chips again. Intel's stock jumped 13% today over Apple chip manufacturing report Additional Mac mini and Mac Studio models cut from the Apple Store website as AI data centers strain available RAM, SSD supplies Apple requires verification for education discounts, ENDS discounts for k-12 unless you're homeschooled. Tim Cook among CEOs confirmed for President Trump's China trip. More refunds possible for Apple as Trump's 10% global tariffs found illegal too. Apple releases tvOS 26.5, HomePod 26.5, and visionOS 26.5. Apple to make design changes in macOS 27 to address Tahoe quirks. Here's how I finally got Google's uninvited 4GB AI model off my Mac. macOS 27 threatens to bury Time Capsule, FOSS brings a shovel. Apple kicks off new run of A18 Pro chips as MacBook Neo demand exceeds expectations. Not dead yet: Apple Vision still has a future. visionOS 27 will bring these new Vision Pro upgrades. The $1 Steve Jobs coin. Google denies copying Apple's Liquid Glass design for Android. You can purchase Apple's Mac Pro wheels kit for $699. Picks of the Week Leo's Pick: whatcable Christina's Pick: Obsidian's Plugin Site Andy's Pick: Snapseed Photo Editor Jason's Picks: Indigo & Gnome Hosts: Leo Laporte, Andy Ihnatko, Jason Snell, and Christina Warren Download or subscribe to MacBreak Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/macbreak-weekly. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: zocdoc.com/macbreak scribe.how/macbreak
Brett records an episode without Christina and Jeff and chats with Melissa Davis (The Mac Mommy) about her start as a mommy blogger and longtime Mac podcaster, her tech-support work, and the strange lack of closure when online friends disappear. They trade mental-health and chronic-illness updates, Adderall vs. Vyvanse, difficulty finding curious doctors, and being labeled “worried well.” Don’t worry, they nerd out on mechanical keyboards, Karabiner, and remapping keys. GrAPPtitudes include Bartender 6 Pro, Sortio for AI tagging, Sketch Party TV, and Karabiner. Sponsor OneSkin improves your skincare routine with science-backed skin care products. With over 10,000 five-star reviews and validation from clinical studies, OneSkin has made a name for itself in the skincare industry. If you’re interested in trying OneSkin for yourself, you can get 15% off your order with the code OVERTIRED at oneskin.co/OVERTIRED. Chapters 00:00 Meet Melissa Davis 00:56 Early Podcast Days 02:20 Tech Support Seniors 05:52 Digital Legacy Work 06:50 Sponsor: OneSkin 08:14 Mental Health Check In 08:34 Insomnia And Focus 13:19 Doing Time Tracker 16:04 Suspenders And Stenosis 20:18 Mobility And Home Hacks 22:10 Melissa Health Update 23:25 ADHD Meds And Mutations 25:25 Curious Doctors Matter 27:59 Vyvanse Vs Adderall 30:26 Tracking Mood With Data 32:27 Cane And Somatic Therapy 36:09 Somatics For EDS 36:50 Yoga Modifications 38:19 Polycystic Liver Shock 39:20 Fatphobia In Healthcare 40:56 Pole Dancing Reality Check 41:55 Mechanical Keyboard ASMR 45:56 Nail Art And Picking 49:09 Keyboard Layout Rabbit Hole 01:00:59 Shortcuts And Muscle Memory 01:03:12 GrAPPtitude App Picks 01:14:07 Karabiner Power Tips 01:17:30 Wrap Up And Thanks Show Links hEDS Doing Timing Royal Kludge Keyboard Gamakey Silent Linear Switches EPOMAKER Switch Benefit Section EPOMAKER AegisSil Keycaps Set SketchParty TV Karabiner Sortio Bartender Pro Day One Join the Conversation Merch Come chat on Discord! Twitter/ovrtrd Instagram/ovrtrd Youtube Get the Newsletter Thanks! You’re downloading today’s show from CacheFly’s network BackBeat Media Podcast Network Check out more episodes at overtiredpod.com and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. Find Brett as @ttscoff, Christina as @film_girl, Jeff as @jsguntzel, and follow Overtired at @ovrtrd on Twitter. Transcript Nails and Keys with Melissa Davis (The Mac Mommy) [00:00:00] Meet Melissa Davis Brett: Hey, this is Brett Terpstra. I am without my usual cohorts, Christina and Jeff. Um, so I, I wanted to, you know, get a, get an episode out for all of you listeners, and I reached out to Melissa Davis, known as The Mac Mommy. Um, I don’t, I, I don’t know if they’re still known as The Mac Mommy, but in m- in my lifetime they have been. Um, Melissa, why don’t you introduce yourself, let people know, like, M-Ma- long time, like Mac personality, podcaster. Tell us where you came from. Melissa: Where did I come from? Outer space. Uh, I came from being a mom. I, I, I will admit, this is hard to admit, But I will admit I started out as a mommy blogger. That’s, like, kind of a bad word nowadays. Brett: back, back, yeah, this is way Back when Melissa: [00:01:00] Yeah. Early Podcast Days Melissa: so we’re talking, like… Well, my oldest is gonna be 20, Brett. My oldest is gonna be 20 this summer. End of, end of June he’ll be 20 years old. So that’s about how long I’ve been doing podcasting. I mean, I started, I started, like, when… Well, you know what? I started listening to Adam Christianson’s The MacCast Brett: But you know what? I started Sure. Like one of the very first podcasts, Yeah. Melissa: still, I still listen to him on the Mac Geek Gab. Like, his voice is just so soothing to me. I used to… Like, that was the f- Back when I had, I had, I remember I had, like, an old G4, uh, Quicksilver Mac, and in the stinky little back room of our old house. And I used to, I used to download the podcasts, burn them on a CD, put them in my Walkman, ’cause I didn’t have an iPod yet at the time. I wasn’t that… I was never really that cutting edge. And I’d burn them on a CD, I’d put the CD in my Walkman, and then I would sit and nurse, I would nurse my baby. I, [00:02:00] and I would have to tuck the, uh, the headphones, you know, I’d have the ear- the, the wired, kinda like I have now, uh, and tuck it behind my back, like, behind my shoulder, because otherwise he’d, like, yank on the cord. And I would just listen to podcasts while I nursed. And I… And then, uh, then I met Victor Cajiao, and I started just kind of being, like, a serial podcaster, showing up here and there, and then it just kinda grew from there. Tech Support Seniors Melissa: Um, and I do… So I do tech support. I’m an IT tech s- tech support person. I… People call me their computer guru. I mostly work with, uh, the senior population, our, our vintage people, which I, I’m slowly becoming one of them. We’re all, we’re all gonna go that way. Brett: I feel like anyone who does Mac tech support deals with probably an, a, a population that skews older. Melissa: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, it’s actually, it’s actually more– I will say it’s actually more difficult to work with somebody younger. Like, especially people my age or people [00:03:00] that are like, say, in their sixties I consider pretty young, 70 even. Uh, yeah, so but it’s, you know, the people are so, so interesting. You can learn so much. I love working with this population because they’re like encyclopedias, and the stories they tell you and the things you learn, it’s pretty amazing. And I could just, I could just spend– I have actually spent all day with some of them. Some of us just have really great chemistry and, you know, it’s… They– I, I’m also– I have ADHD, that’s no secret. And I think when you get older, um, not– it doesn’t affect everybody, but I do see a lot of what could be either they, they have ADHD or it’s like a– Brett: they have Melissa: of creeps in and it’s just a natural process of aging, cognitive decline. So, yep. Brett: have a lot of patience. Sure. S- some of my, some of my most interesting relationships over the last 10 years have been with, uh, Mac users in their late 70s, [00:04:00] 80s. And, uh, like they’ve been– They’re very– Like, they’re definitely… The people that I’ve known have been technically capable and very interested in learning. That’s why they follow me. That’s how I meet them, right? They’re like, they read my blog, which is just all nerd stuff. And, and so they’re, they’re technically competent, and they’re doing things that I can only aspire to be doing in my 70s and 80s. Um, I had a guy who was writing his memoirs at, in between like mountain bike rides. And so here’s the thing, though, is when you, when you know someone online and they’re in their 80s and you stop hearing from them for a Melissa: Yes. Yes. Brett: you have to assume that they have passed on. and that is sad, and you never really get any closure because you don’t know their friends or family. You [00:05:00] never get like a notice, an obituary. You don’t, you don’t know where these people go, um, and you don’t know how to check in on them once your normal channels of communication are severed. Melissa: Yeah, we’re at that age where we probably start reading the obituaries. Like, I haven’t heard from so-and-so in a while. Let me check the obits." Brett: I had, I had– Before NVUltra went on for, what’s it, like five years now, uh, without a release, um, I had a project called BitWriter with David Halter. And Melissa: remember you mentioning that, yeah. Yeah, and you wondered. Mm-hmm. Brett: he stopped responding. Melissa: you find out any at all? Any, Any, concrete… Brett: Nothing. I have put feelers out everywhere I can think of. I have no idea what happened to him. Melissa: went Richard Simmons, huh? Brett: yeah. Yeah. With less Melissa: No contact. No contact. Aw. Digital Legacy Work Melissa: I, I’m lucky that, uh, in my line of [00:06:00] work, I do typically hear from the family if they’ve passed on, because I form kind of a bond with a lot of people. I, I typically don’t lose clients unless they die, so… Brett: and you have some, like, in real life connections to Melissa: Oh, yeah. Yeah, I do, I do both. I do… I have some clients where I’ve never met them in person, I’ve only ever done remote. Uh, and then, but most of my clients are, are local, the majority of them. But I, I still s- see them remotely too, so yeah. I’ve, I’ve actually been hired by some people, um, mostly I’ve had two male clients who they got a terminal illness, they knew they were terminal, and they followed me online and they pretty much hired me to take care of their surviving spouse. So that, that was… that’s a difficult thing, but I’m just honored that they chose me to, to help them out with that. So I’ve kind of been a bit of a digital undertaker in that regard. Sponsor: OneSkin Christina: I want to take a moment to share something that has significantly improved my skincare routine, OneSkin. [00:07:00] So we all have those days when our skin doesn’t feel its best, and I’ve certainly been in that boat, especially recovering from surgery. And I was tired of navigating through endless products that promised results, but often fell short. And that’s when I discovered OneSkin. It was founded by scientists dedicated to longevity, and this brand stands out for its commitment to real science over marketing hype. They tackle the fundamental question of how to actually slow down skin aging rather than just masking it. And their groundbreaking ingredient is, uh, ZeroS01, and it’s a proprietary peptide designed to help deactivate the damaged cells that contribute to aging skin. Since incorporating OneSkin into my routine, I’ve actually been noticing some improvements. My skin feels smoother. It looks more vibrant. Um, it’s definitely more moisturized, and so this is benefiting from its focus on supporting collagen and strengthening the skin barrier. With over 10,000 five-star reviews and validation from clinical studies, OneSkin has made a name for itself in the skincare industry. If [00:08:00] you’re interested in trying OneSkin for yourself, you can get 15% off your order with the code OVERTIRED at oneskin.co/overtired. That’s 15% off at oneskin.co/overtired using the code OVERTIRED. Thank you for supporting our show by checking them out Mental Health Check In Brett: Um, so do you wanna do a mental health Melissa: Sure. Brett: I, I know, I know you’ve listened to the show before. I know you know how this works. Melissa: how this works. Brett: Would you like to start? Melissa: I think I would like to hear you start, and then I’ll, I’ll add on Brett: that sounds good. Insomnia And Focus Brett: Um, so sleep continues to be a major issue for me. Um, I actually for four days in a row last week, I got eight hours of sleep a night, which was insane. I felt so good. Um- The first night… So I take [00:09:00] Lamictal for bipolar, and if I miss my evening dose, I crash and I sleep in the next morning, and I sleep soundly. Like, it’s the best sleep I can get. And then I wake up and all of a sudden the withdrawal kicks in, and then I’m shaky and dizzy for half an hour after I take the dose. Um, but that’s after, like, a solid night of sleep, and it never works two nights in a row. And, like, I’ve tried, like, maybe if I take Lamictal in the mornings instead of the evenings, maybe I’ll sleep through the night. It doesn’t work after that first missed dose. Um, but then I just, without making any changes in my lifestyle, started sleeping, and I thought finally after, like, two years of insomnia, I had turned a corner, because I can’t remember the last time I got eight hours of sleep for more than two nights in a [00:10:00] row. And then it ended, and then I was up. I’ve been up since 2:30 today. Melissa: I wondered, yep. Brett: I mean, I went to bed at 8:00, so that’s still nine, 10, 11, 12, 11, Melissa: I actually dozed off on the couch around 8:30. Like, if only I could just be in my bed right now, just be, like, transported. Yeah. Oh. Brett: Oh, I, I wish. If I could go back to bed… Like, sometimes I’ll, I’ll lay back down around 7:00 or 8:00 and get, like, another half hour of sleep, but it’s really that, like, uninterrupted block of deep sleep that I need, not… I take naps during the day, and I can usually fall asleep for half an hour, um, given that I’m usually functioning on five hours of sleep anyway. But anyway, um, I– That, that’s just kind of par for the course for me, so, like, any, any of our listeners know that that’s gonna be the first thing I report. Melissa: are you, [00:11:00] like, kinda competing? Like, are you trying to get eight hours because that’s what’s prescribed? Have you ever thought about Brett: be- actually, what works eight and a half, like I’ve, I’ve… Back when I had the option to sleep more than five hours, like, I did a lot of kind of experimentation and Melissa: know where your sweet spot is. Brett: Well, it… See, the sweet pot- spot changes as you age, though, and you need less sleep as you get older. So, so I can’t say for sure that eight and a half hours is still my sweet spot. Um, and I think honestly, if I can sleep seven hours, I feel pretty good, and I consider seven hours a good night’s sleep. Melissa: Yeah, ’cause mine’s like between four and six. Brett: really? Yeah. See, Melissa: feel Brett: I don’t function well. Oh, I don’t function well on anything less than seven hours. Melissa: I just have a love-hate relationship with sleep. I just don’t– I just hate to sleep. I just would rather be doing other things. Life is [00:12:00] just too interesting. Brett: I get that. I– get that. I– as someone who’s bipolar and has had like manic episodes where I’m up for five days straight, like I, I love not sleeping. Um, w- when, when I have the mania to give me energy and back it up. It’s when I’m just dragging all day and feel like a zombie. The thing– The, the plus side to it is the more tired I am, up to a certain point, the better I can focus. Like my brain slows down and it’s really easy for me to get into hyperfocus. And like most mornings I’m up at, you know, 2:30, 3:00 and I just start coding. And I can not only hyperfocus, but I can switch focus between three or four different projects like simultaneously. I hit compile on one, I move on to the next one, and I can rotate [00:13:00] through them and like keep track of all of it. And then right around 10:00 AM, my ability to do that ends and suddenly I like flip to a project and I cannot for the life of me remember what I was doing, which is why I’ve spent my life building note-taking apps and, and time tracking tools. Melissa: Yep, same thing. Doing Time Tracker Brett: dude, h- d- I don’t… You might not be familiar with my project Doing. Melissa: N-no, but I– you alluded to something. that’s not what you’re working on with Dan though, is it? Brett: No, no, that’s gonna be Melissa: Dan on that too. I, I, don’t know what it is yet, but yeah, I’m, I’m Brett: Oh, it’s… Yeah, it’s gonna be cool. Melissa: that’s so exciting. Brett: no, Doing is a command line tool where you can type things like, “Doing now podcasting with Melissa,” and it starts a timer for like what I’m doing now, and then I can ask it if I leave and come back, I can say, “What was I doing?” And it’ll tell me, [00:14:00] “You’re podcasting with Melissa.” Obviously, that’s a weird example ’cause I’m not gonna leave in the middle of this. But then it can give you like totals, time, tag-based time totals, uh, for your week and everything. It can show you like what you finished yesterday. Um, it’s not so much a task tracking app as it is a tool for keeping track of what you’re doing in the moment. Um, for, for people like me who switch between four projects at once, it’s really handy. And some guy, some fucking guy Melissa: Some fucking guy. Brett: it, rewrote it in Rust, and it is really good. it is really good. Uh, he like, I- Oh yeah, I use Melissa: Okay, ’cause Brett: This is, this is separate. this is this is a little more ‘ intentional than Timing. Um, I use both. They kind of work together, and Doing can actually import Timing’s JSON exports. So you can turn your, you can turn [00:15:00] all your Timing data into command line, uh, readable Doing files. Um, but anyway, this guy rewrote it in Rust with my permission, and he gave me full credit on the page. And I think I’m switching ’cause Doing is written in Ruby, and Ruby is slow, and Rust is fast. And like my Doing file where it stores all of my current projects, like my Doing items, gets so big that it can take Doing like up to five seconds to respond when I ask it, “What was I doing today?” Which is five seconds is a long time on the command line. Um, and his Melissa: pretty instantaneous. Brett: his version is like 100 milliseconds. Boom. But anyway, Melissa: It’s almost like you built your own little AI thing. Like, what was I doing? What Brett: kinda, kinda, yeah. Melissa: you doing, Dave? Brett: This is, this [00:16:00] was built long before AI was a common thing, but the other thing that’s contributing to my mental health Suspenders And Stenosis Brett: is suspenders. Melissa: Ah, yes. Brett: So I have I have gained 100 pounds, um, not, n-not of my own choice, but like I had rapid weight gain and I recently got a stenosis diagnosis, which I hate the Melissa: telling you, I’m telling you, we’re like 23 and me here. I’ve got that too. Brett: apparently during one of my, like when I gained 50 pounds in like six weeks, my body was looking for places to store all the new fat and decided my spine might be a good place for that. Um, so I have fat in my spine and I have degrading discs. This is separate from my love of suspenders, so I’ll get back to [00:17:00] that. I, um, Melissa: Wait till you get it in your eyeballs. Brett: Oh, for real? Melissa: Yeah, you can have… I have, um, what’s it called? Cholesterol. Yeah, if you look at your eyes really close, if you see like a white kind of w- ridge around your irises, that’s cholesterol. Brett: Oh, wow. Yeah, I hope, I hope that hasn’t happened yet, but who knows? Um, Melissa: Brings out Brett: I– So I have all this, I have all this extra weight and I had a lot of trouble with belts. A, belts hurt ’cause they dig into my, my gut, and they don’t really work. I, every, every time I stood up, my butt crack showed and I had to like wiggle my pants up. And then I I tried a pair of suspenders and it was like a l- a switch had been flipped. All of a sudden my pants just stayed up without any constriction around my waist, just like they just stayed with me wherever I went. And now I can, [00:18:00] I can tuck my shirts in and it actually looks kinda cool when you got the suspenders look going on. Which means, so like for a long time I only wore one brand of shirt, um, and because they, it was, it fit my belly and it was long enough and like it wasn’t, wasn’t baggy around the top and didn’t hang off my belly like a muumuu. Melissa: Mm-hmm, Brett: And like, so I, I, I only wore this brand of shirt and I own like 15 of them, and I would just cycle through Melissa: dresses, they’re just your Walmart $10 cotton tank dress. Love it. Brett: Yeah. But now that I can tuck my shirts in and feel okay about it, I can buy those extra large nerd shirts, ones with funny slogans and stuff on them. And normally those would hang straight down off my belly, and I hate the way that looks. But now I can tuck those in, which means I can get back to wearing funny, [00:19:00] ironic T-shirts, and it, it’s like opening up a whole new world of possibilities Melissa: That is a bonus for mental health. Brett: every day now I put on my suspenders and it makes me happy. Um, Melissa: wonderful. It’s almost like a, like a mobility aid. Brett: Kinda, yeah. Melissa: yeah. Brett: of, I– So I, I have a monopod, um, like a tripod that folds up into a walking stick, and it’s nice and light and it is an adjustable height ’cause it’s designed to be used as a camera tripod. Um, and I’ve started walking with it Melissa: yeah. kinda like you’re Brett: I c- yeah. Yeah. Like one of my fat friends has s- literal like ski poles. They’re like half height ski poles and they walk with them and it helps them a ton, and I Melissa: Yeah, hikers use those. Brett: try that out. But a walking stick [00:20:00] really does help with my stenosis, but I can still, even with a stick, I can only walk for about five minutes, which is about .3, Melissa: Yeah. Brett: 3, .3 miles. Um, and then I have to stop and sit, and it’s been a real pain, literally. Mobility And Home Hacks Melissa: And is standing difficult, too? Brett: standing is worse than walking. Melissa: thing, yeah. Standing’s worse. Brett: Yeah. Like if I am in the kitchen and I’m at the stove cooking, before the onions start to brown, I have to sit Melissa: Yeah. Yep. Brett: Uh, so we now have a stool in our kitchen, Melissa: Do you have one in the shower? Brett: yes. Well, our shower, our shower has a nice, like the back of the tub is a seat. Melissa: Oh, okay. Yeah. Brett: I don’t know if this house was designed by old people or not, but, um, but it’s certainly everything is relatively [00:21:00] accessible in that way. Um, but the stool in the kitchen means I can cook dinner. Emptying the dishwasher is the worst for me. That just like bending over, picking stuff up, and then just moving back and forth, like the five feet across our kitchen. My– I, it takes me three stops, three rests to get a dishwasher emptied. Um, and then I’m kind of ruined after that. I hate it. And I hate that I Melissa: stress mat? Brett: What’s that? Oh, you mean Melissa: mat to stand on? Gotta get, gotta Brett: think that would help? Melissa: Oh, yeah. Yeah, I have Brett: used to have one Melissa: and one in front of the kitchen, and I don’t even, I don’t even, do the cooking. Brett: Ha. I used to, I used to have one of those in front of the stove when I w- when I didn’t have pain, but just because I was really getting into cooking and I was spending a lot of time, and I was starting to feel it in my knees. Um, yeah, maybe I should do Melissa: I think it’s a fatigue [00:22:00] mat, I think they call it. Brett: Yeah. Melissa: Yeah, Brett: That sounds Melissa: plus they look cool if you get little designs on them and stuff. Yeah. Oh, we could spend the day talking about just mobility aids and ergonomics and all that kind of stuff. Melissa Health Update Brett: Well, it’s your turn. Talk about whatever you like. Melissa: Yeah, you give me some ideas to talk about. Um, yeah, I struggle with a lot of the same things that you do. Um, I’m always like kinda comparing notes every time you post something. I’m like, "Oh No, ‘Cause you talked about Have you … You haven’t started the injections yet, have you? Brett: No, and they just delayed those. I don’t get them until like June 20th or something. Melissa: nervous about those for you, because I’ve had those and I’ve decided to just swear off them, so I’ll just kinda give you just a heads-up. I mean, it does raise your blood sugar, so that’s not great, and, um, it can give you the roid rage, kinda make you angry, so that’s something to watch out for, and more weight gain, so …But it’s like one of those things where you just have to kinda try [00:23:00] it and see if it works, because if it does work, then you could be more mobile and then maybe drop a few pounds and get some of that weight off of your spine. But if it doesn’t work, just know that that can happen, Brett: my doctor did not mention any of those side effects, so good to Melissa: Yeah. Yeah. It’s, it’s the chronic life, so that’s, that’s what, that’s what, uh, affects my mental health, so I’m, I’m really good at faking it. I am actually … I will say I’m actually feeling a little bit more even. ADHD Meds And Mutations Melissa: I’m on, uh … I love when you talk about different prescriptions and stuff. Uh, I just mentioned, so I’m taking Adderall. That is, ugh, it’s a mixed bag. Um, I wanted to ask you about Vyvanse, cause that’s the next thing for me, but it’s, like, super expensive, so I’m trying to make Adderall work as best I can, but I’m, I’m in the process of playing with the dosage. But I think she told me, like, the highest was 30. The thing is, uh, I’ve had genetic testing done, and [00:24:00] I have this condit- not a condition, but it’s a I’m a mutant. It’s a genetic mutation called, it’s, it’s just initials. It’s MTHFR, lovingly known as Brett: you process your, your, chemicals twice as … fast. I have Melissa: Yes, faster processing in the liver. So that’s when she told me, ’cause she started, uh, me out on methylphenidate, and I was like, “Well, what about Adderall?” Because it, I see it work for my kids, you know? The kids are chip off the old block, right? And so I’ve had them tested too, and all three of us are positive for that. It’s lovelin- lovingly known as the motherfucker gene mutation. Um, yeah, so, and it is. It’s, it’s quite a bitch, um, ’cause it causes a whole bunch of other problems. And of course, we’ve talked about Ehlers-Danlos, so I have, uh, hypermobile Eh- Ehlers-Danlos. I’m having a hard time … I’m just having a hard time with that in general, mental health wise, because there’s just not enough awareness about it, enough people, and doctors, doctors and nurses. And you know, I’ll, I’ll say I wanna, I would love to be able to get [00:25:00] to a point where I can just say, “I have H-E-D-S,” or heads or what- however they’re gonna pronounce it, and, like, somebody know what that is when I go in for an appointment. But I still have to explain it, you know? And then that, that cuts into my time. ‘Cause they only … When you’re, when you’re our age, they only give you, like, 15 minutes, if that. When you’re much older, ’cause I’ve had to take, I’ve had to take family members to the doctor, they get a whole lot more time. But, uh, you know, it’s like, "Oh, you’re, you’re too young to be this sick. You’re too young to be this old," Brett: Right. Yeah. Curious Doctors Matter Brett: Um, I did– I found that doctor for me that knew exactly what all those acronyms meant, knew exactly, like, not only did they know what POTS was, they knew like seven different kinds of POTS and what tests to use to narrow it down. And then she got called up to National Guard Melissa: Oh, I wondered, I wondered, what happened to that doctor, ’cause it sounded so Brett: I waited. I was on a, I was on– I w- I had an appointment scheduled that was gonna be six months from the time she [00:26:00] left. Um, and I had it scheduled, and it was on July 7th. And then I got a letter in the mail saying that her Guard duty had been extended, and now I can’t see her again until September. And, like, I’ve, I’ve tried seeing other doctors that work with her, but none of them have the knowledge she has, and it was such a relief Melissa: Is this the curious one? Okay. I always think about you whenever I’m either looking for a provider or in the, in the midst of, of getting, you know, shuffled around to a new provider. I’m like, “I hope they’re curious,” ’cause that made– that meant so much to me when you explained about how a doctor needs to be curious. I’m like, “That’s what I need.” I need somebody… Or even just my therapist. I have a new, a new therapist that I see, and she’s really curious, and I really, really like that about her. That’s something that helps with mental health, is when somebody’s curious, ’cause I’m Brett: it goes h- it goes hand in hand with credulousness. Like, [00:27:00] first they have to be willing to believe you, and like, especially when it comes to invisible issues like EDS. Like, you have to be willing to believe a person and then be curious enough to look for answers. Like, the first step is believing, and the second step is curiosity. Melissa: Yes. I’ve already had my patient record marked as… Have you ever heard this one? Worried well. Brett: No. Melissa: I looked it up. It’s basically hypochondriac. Brett: Yeah, that’s what I was gonna guess. That Melissa: Yep. I actually– I was proud of myself because I actually did confront the doctor about it and I said, “What does this mean?” I said, “I, I looked it up and it kinda concerns me ’cause it makes me look like a hypochondriac.” And she said, "Oh, no, no, that’s just a, a code that we use when we don’t have something else to assign to it so that insurance will pay." Bullshit. Brett: Yeah, right? I feel like that’s exactly the kind of [00:28:00] thing insurance doesn’t pay. Melissa: Mm-hmm. so Vyvanse Vs Adderall Brett: what do you wanna know about Vyvanse? Melissa: Um, a- and I know it’s different for everybody, but I just kinda wondered what your take was on it. Um, how– can you compare it to Adderall at all for me, Brett: Yeah. Melissa: no comparison? Brett: it’s basically a non-abusable, I would call it lower lying version of, of Adderall. Like, it’s in the same family of stimulant as Adderall, but it can’t– It isn’t processed or it’s… I don’t remember how the mechanics of it work, but you can’t snort it basically. Like, it doesn’t, it doesn’t do anything Melissa: Which I wouldn’t wanna do anyway ’cause there’s nothing up here. Brett: Sure. Sure. And then, yeah, I’m not suggesting that was gonna be a problem for you. Um, but it’s also, like, it’s way, um, for me anyway, it’s way calmer. [00:29:00] Um, and there are people that say it doesn’t do anything at all. Um, especially a lot of people, a lot of people say the generic version doesn’t do anything, um, and that the name brand version does, but I haven’t found that to be true. Like the generic, which you’re correct, still costs like 200 bucks a month, um, for the generic. Um, but it is– It’s not my favorite. Melissa: I wondered why– what made you stop taking it. Did it just not work for you? Brett: No, I still take Vyvanse. Um, yeah. Um, I used to take, um, Focalin, which I loved. Melissa: That really worked for my kiddo, yep. Brett: but it also triggered my mania, Melissa: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Brett: so I was always walking this line of like, do I wanna be super productive and manic with like weeks of depression in between, [00:30:00] or do I just wanna be somewhat productive and stable? Um, which is why I’ve stuck with Vyvanse, and my doctor loves it enough for me that she won’t, she won’t prescribe anything else for me at this point. Like, I’ve asked about switching. I’ve asked about moving back to Adderall and things like that, but, Melissa: It seems like you’re, like you’re kinda on an evening out. Brett: Yeah, I haven’t had a manic episode for a couple years now. Tracking Mood With Data Melissa: Do you track it? Do you– Like, have you ever seen those– I keep seeing these ads for it ’cause, you know, the algorithm feeds us the stuff for wearables that are, um, called– I think it’s called Visible, so it makes your symptoms more visible instead of invisible. Like, do you track it? Do you Have you nerded out on your own data? Brett: like my mania and depression? Melissa: Yeah, like do you track it and look at graphs or anything like that to Brett: See, I’ve never had to use an external tool because I can just look at GitHub contribution graphs, and I can look at [00:31:00] my RSS feed, and I can see exactly, like for a period of like eight years, I can pinpoint exactly where my manic episodes were, um, because that data is historically preserved out there on the internet for all to see. Um, it’s, yeah, it’s– Well, and that’s, like I built tools that gathered that, those various sources of data. Um, and then there was a, a tool called, um, I forget. Melissa: cool, though? Hmm. We’ll think Brett: But it could pull, it could pull in all that data. Um, Bell Beth Cooper, Hello Code, I can’t remember the name of the app. Melissa: Yeah, it’ll come to you eventually. Brett: sure. Uh, but it could pull in like your GitHub, uh, commits along with like what the weather was at the time, how many songs you listened to that Melissa: Oh, day one sorta does that, yeah. Brett: Does it now? Melissa: A little bit, yeah, your locations, [00:32:00] um, if you turn on some of those things. Like not– I don’t think it does the music and things like that, but Brett: I haven’t used it for a while. I haven’t used it for a Melissa: I was gonna switch to the journal app. I was actually really… I held off on upgrading to Tahoe for the longest time, but that one kept nagging at me ’cause I thought, oh, you know, maybe. I mean, as much as I love Day One, I, I thought about, I thought about actually switching over, but no. I tried it. I’m, I’m gonna stick with Day One. Brett: Cool. All right. Cane And Somatic Therapy Brett: Um, so did you have, did you have more to add to your Melissa: Oh, I was gonna, I was gonna add on to what you were talking about with the suspenders. I did start… I think you probably… Well, yeah, you commented on it. Um, I started using a cane, and that I have mixed feelings about that. Um, I should have brought it in here so I could show you. I’ll show you later, ’cause, uh, anyway, it’s, it’s purple. I did get a pimp cane. That’s what my husband calls it. I thought, damn it, if I’m gonna use, like, a cane, then it’s gonna be [00:33:00] purple, and I’m gonna like looking at it, as much as I hate to use it, so. So I’ve been trying to use it. I… What you were talking about with, uh, with finding a curious doctor, I do have new physical therapist, um, so I’m really happy about that. Same kind of thing where she’s super booked. I think that’s just how it is. Like, the really good ones, they’re good, and, you know, it shows because it’s, it’s hard to get in to see them. So yeah. So I’m, I’m looking forward to that. We’re gonna be doing… Have you heard of somatic therapy? Brett: Yeah. Melissa: Yeah. So ha- have you tried it? Do, do you like it? Okay. That’s, that’s what I’m embarking on. Brett: I actually have a friend who teaches classes in it. Melissa: Oh, Al probably knows about that. Brett: y- yeah, Melissa: Yeah, I’ll, I’ll Brett: and it is, it is amazing how hard just doing things, doing motions you’re used to, but doing them very slowly and intentionally. It is like you– Just like, Just like, doing y- like a clamshell where you drop your knee, you’re [00:34:00] on your back and you drop your knee down to the side and bring it back up. Like that motion, most of us, even infirmed people can do that okay. You try to take… You try to do that and take like five breaths in each direction, and you’ll start shaking. It’s very Melissa: Ah, uh-huh. Yep. Brett: Yeah, but it’s good. Like it’s g- it really retrains your muscles. It really, it strengthens, retrains, and helps with, uh, finer motor control. Melissa: Oh, that’s interesting. Yeah, I, I’m, I’m a little bit on the skeptical end of it, so that’s why I’m, I’m glad that, that you, you vouch for it too. It’s like I know that it works, but I just… I guess I wanna understand the science of it a little bit more. Like, for example, I’ve tried, uh, acupuncture, and I just didn’t feel like it did, did anything for me. I think you have to be, like, a believer, and I just Brett: think so. Melissa: I, I, I even did that on purpose knowing that I kinda felt like it wasn’t gonna work. I was like, well, what if I just go into this? ‘Cause, [00:35:00] ’cause I talk to people and they’re like, "Well, you have to believe in it." I’m like, but what if I don’t? I just don’t, you know? I’m, I see it Brett: it’s not medicine if you have to believe in it. Melissa: Yeah. I mean, I see it work for other people. I know there’s, you know, such a thing as placebos and things like that, and I don’t know, it’s, it’s woo-woo and I, I, I like woo-woo stuff. I, it just, it didn’t do anything for me, so… It’s not to say that it doesn’t work for other people, but it just did not work for me, and I, I kind of, I, maybe I just, uh, did that on purpose when I, I try- probably just tripped myself up going into it thinking, well, I just don’t believe it, so if it works, then there must be science behind it. And then, then, I’ll believe. But it didn’t work out, so. So the, I’m a little bit on the fence about the somatic thing, but the, the, the gal that I’m working with is just so, she has EDS herself, and like, like what you were saying, like, she, she knows all about it and she could even, you know, tell me the, the type that she has, and I was like, I met, I met, actually last week I met two zebras in one week. [00:36:00] You, you’re familiar with the, the zebra mascot? If you, uh, the saying goes, if you hear hooves, think horses. But we’re not horses, are we? Yeah, so Yeah, so that’s, that’s our, our Somatics For EDS Melissa: EDS Brett: somatic– somatics you don’t have to believe in for them to work. Melissa: Okay, that is Brett: it’s an actual physical therapy method that trains the finer muscles, um, that surround your larger muscles and, and strengthens those, and it– Yeah, it’s for real. It’s, yeah, it’s not like a… It’s soma- I think, Melissa: w- totally Brett: ’cause I I had the same reaction when someone said somatics, ’cause I think, “Oh, that’s some holistic idea of the body, um, of soma,” and it’s… No, it’s, it’s got legit physical therapy behind it. Melissa: And, Yoga Modifications Melissa: you used to do a lot of yoga too, so that probably makes Brett: I still do. Melissa: Yeah? That’s [00:37:00] wonderful. Brett: it’s gotten really hard. Um, I can’t, I can’t– So I get dizzy Melissa: Yeah. Brett: going from sitting to standing, um, and my back gives out if I am in, like, horse or warrior two for more than a couple minutes. Um, and I can’t do cobras because I have a belly like a nine-month pregnancy. Um, so I have to do, like, prenatal yoga, um, which is actually a thing. Melissa: that’s a good idea. I’m glad you brought that up. I should look Brett: a- and I do chair yoga, um, where I I take the class that everyone else takes, but I modify it to work with… Like, there, there are defined moves that you do with a chair instead of. Instead of doing down dog, you do, like, a 90-degree down dog holding the back of a chair. Um, and you put, like, a knee on the chair to do warrior two, so you’re actually [00:38:00] resting. And Um, and you can do it fully seated too and get at least the arm exercises out of it. So I’ve been trying to maintain, maintain flexibility and some endurance. I’m not doing yoga the way I used to do it, but I am still Melissa: I’ve seen some of your poses. It’s pretty impressive. Brett: Yeah, back in the day. Melissa: W- when you could be upside down. Polycystic Liver Shock Melissa: I should look into that because I, you know, although I’m done having babies, like far done having babies, I have… You probably know about this too, I have polycystic liver disease, which is a really rare type of liver disease, and it’s not fatty liver. Oh my God, I have to keep telling doctors that. That’s the other thing. It’s like, it is not fatty liver. It is not. It- they’re cysts. It’s a totally different thing. I’m basically full of bubbles. So I… But it feels like that’s why I went in to get it. I didn’t actually get that checked. I found it accidentally when I went in for an heart, for a heart CT. That’s when they found it, and for a, a breast MRI, so [00:39:00] both those, those types of scans caught it. The other parts were fine, so my heart’s fine, so that’s a relief. But yeah, so this was a bit of a shock. And so I don’t know exactly what it means moving forward, um, but my entire liver is, like, engulfed in cysts, so. Right? But my blood work is, is fantastic right now, so I’m just gonna keep Brett: That’s good. Melissa: hoping it stays that way. Brett: That’s something. Fatphobia In Healthcare Brett: Um, I I have heard for a long time about, um, doctors being fatphobic and, and always assuming that, um, always assuming that your health i-issue is because you’re fat and not even looking for underlying issues, which has been an interesting experience for me because that really never happened to me. Melissa: Mm. Brett: Um, at least not once I switched to Gundersen from, like, a local clinic. Then I realized that it’s not just being fat that gets you [00:40:00] stigmatized, it’s being a fat woman. Melissa: Mm, I was gonna say try having a uterus and being Brett: yeah. Yeah. Um, like I talked to one of my best friends, April, who he’s, has been on Melissa: by, women doctors. Brett: Yeah. Yeah. And that’s, that’s what April tells me. She tells me all these horror stories. Even after finding care she trusted, she still has to deal with people saying, “Well, if you just lost some weight.” Like, she’s been fat her whole life. She’s in better shape than most skinny people Melissa: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Brett: I mean, she does sit-ups with 50-pound plates and does, like, five, 10 miles at a time on her, like, on her bike and, like, she’s in great shape and still has to walk with the ski poles, and she’s getting her second knee replaced this week. And, like, it, it’s just infuriating to hear the way that doctors dismiss Melissa: You know what the problem is, Brett? Brett: goes through [00:41:00] when Pole Dancing Reality Check Melissa: Not enough doctors have watched fat pole dancers. That is the problem right there. They need more education. Brett: Um, yeah. There’s, there are a couple of, um, queer burlesque shows Melissa: shows, yes. Brett: in my area that almost always include a plus-size pole dance, and it is amazing to Melissa: Oh, it’s mesmerizing. It should be an Olympic sport. Remind me to send you the, the link to, unless you’ve already seen it, have you seen the Deadpool pole dancer? Brett: No, I don’t think Melissa: you are in for a treat. We might just have to put that in the show notes, but I don’t know, I don’t know if your listeners are that, are into that It’s fully clothed, but it’s, there’s even blue Crocs involved. Brett: So this is nobody that you’re seeing on the Melissa: I wondered, yep. I wondered, yeah. Aw, he looks so soft. Mm. Mechanical Keyboard ASMR Brett: So you’ve [00:42:00] gotten really into mechanical keyboards. Melissa: have, I have. In fact, uh, I was gonna, I was gonna see how this might sound, but I, I brought my little box of key caps to show you so that I could say, welcome to my ASMR channel. Brett: That would… is is that a thing? I bet there are ASMR, like, key switch testing. Melissa: yeah, yeah. I’ve run across a couple of videos where, you know, they’ll have a hashtag ASMR in there, and that’s, that’s what it is. Do you experience ASMR yourself? Brett: No. Melissa: No? So when you listen to those videos you don’t get like the s- the tickling of the spine and stuff? Brett: No. Melissa: I do. It actually, it goes, it… I forget. I always forget what the acronym stands for, but it, you know, has something to do with the meridian. So if you can i- imagine your brain like split in half, and I feel it right on this side. It goes, it goes like the, down the back of my head, behind my ear, and down into my shoulder. It [00:43:00] is the funkiest feeling, and I love it. I love it so much. Even when we were talking about animals in the, in the beginning and I even had a cat that would come and just like kind of lick my ear and, oh, I just, I love that. Most people cannot stand that sound. They have the opposite condition where they can’t handle somebody chewing gum. My grandfather had that. Um, some, some kinda, it ends in a tonia. Misatonia or something like that, um, where… I don’t know. Do you have any of those like sound sensory issues? I have a lot of Brett: really don’t. I’m very, I’m very, like, sound Like, I like loud, heavy music. Like, that does something for my psyche. Um, but general sounds, they neither bo-bother me nor stimulate me. Melissa: imagine what that’s like. I just can’t. I’m So bothered, and my kids too, and you know, ugh, God, Brett: So El Melissa: has been problematic. Brett: El is, El is, definitely sensitive to sound, um, in a way that Like, even my [00:44:00] mechanical keyboards can’t be, can’t be on the same floor of the house as Elle. We pretty much live in silence, and that’s fine for me most of the time because, like, it just doesn’t affect me either way. So, like, keeping things quiet is easy, and I focus well in silence. And then when Elle’s gone, I blast my music, and w- when I’m in the car, I blast my music, and then the rest of the time I live in the quiet place. Melissa: Mm-hmm. In The Quiet Place. Brett: Yeah. Melissa: Yeah, we have- something a little similar, but m- my husband and I have, uh… We have our his and hers kind of setup here in, in the, in our den, in our inner study. So he’s got his side and I’ve got my side. So we’re together, and he does a lot of grading papers, and he’s really good about putting his, his earbuds in and just tuning the whole world out. He’s… It’s fascinating to watch that man just [00:45:00] execute. I mean, I just am so envious of people who can just execute. But the, the, the, yeah, the sensory, it’s all about the sensory stuff for me when it comes to keyboards. I actually thought about… I don’t know how popular it would be, but I also thought about making a podcast, a video podcast, that would highlight the intersection of nail art and mechanical keyboards. Because I’ll tell you, that’s actually what… I’ve always loved mechanical keyboards, but yeah, the, the one that I had, someone had given me a, a Matias, and oh, it’s, it’s so loud, but it’s like high-pitched. It’s kinda sharp. And it was even kind of annoying to me after a while. And then it does not, it’s not a mechanical keyboard in that you can’t pull the switches out, so you’re kinda stuck with what you got. Like, you might be able to change the key caps if you could find them, but couldn’t change the switches. And something happened to the S key, and I was like, “All right, it’s over,” so. But I can’t get rid of them either, so one of these days I wanna have like a display of, of keyboards. [00:46:00] Nail Art And Picking Melissa: But what got me, what got me into saying, “Okay, I’m finally, I’m just gonna invest in a keyboard because it’s ergonomically important to me,” is I have… And I can’t pronounce it, so I’m not even gonna try, but there’s a condition, and it’s a self-diagnosed thing. But I, I am a picker. I pick my skin a lot. Um, I think it’s called derma something Anyway, so I wasn’t gonna try to pronounce it. But, uh, I’ve always had that condition since I was a kid. I didn’t even know it was a thing. I just thought everybody get, uh, picks. But then during the pande- during the pandemic, it got super bad. Like, I had, I had, um, some panic attacks and, you know, as a lot of probab- people probably did. But it got so bad to the point where I had picked my fingers and they were bleeding and they were throbbing and they were hurting. And I said to one of my kids, I said to my youngest, I said, “Can you just, like, if I, if I’m picking, can you just let me know?” And then I regretted doing that because then he took it on as this, like, full-time job, you know? And it kinda [00:47:00] gave him anxiety, and I thought, “Oh, okay, that, that was a bad thing to do.” So I s- I let him off the hook. I said, “No, you don’t have to tell me anymore.” Um, because, yeah, ev- even if I went to, like, just kinda, like, clean under my nail or something. So it was actually causing a real problem for the family that I was just picking so much. And it’s not just my fingers, it’s, like, other parts of my body. So I thought to myself, “Well, what can I do about this?” And so I started putting fake nail tips on. And I hate to be all, like… I don’t know, I’m not, I try not to be, like, a very vain person, but I really started kinda falling into the nail art side of things, and I, I just recently learned how to do gel and work with, um, uh, what’s it called? Uh, not resin. So I… Oh, that’s another ASMR thing. Do you like to watch resin pours? Brett: I do, actually, yes. Melissa: that’s… Okay, so if you like resin pours, if you like to watch the viscosity and the way the, the chemicals, like, form together and when they, when they mix colors in and stuff, [00:48:00] that’s what it’s like with nail art but on more of, like, a macro level because it’s, you know, you’re working with small stuff. Like, just, just recently I learned how to do… So I’m showing Brett this on, on camera, but I recently learned how to do the kind of nail polish that you take a magnet and you run the magnet along it, and it makes this, like, a cat’s eye. Brett: Yeah, that’s cool. Melissa: I love it. So, so that, so combining nail art then, and I thought, “Well, now I’ve got these long nails,” but all of my keyboards have been these flat, really low-profile keyboards. And, you know, I just, I started to dread it. So then I was kinda caught between a crossroads. Like, either I leave nails off and I can type really, really fast and have high accuracy with no nails, but then as soon as, as soon as I get, like, a little snag or something, then I start picking and then it’s just, it’s all over then. Or I try to find a way to work with these nails. So that’s what I started thinking, “Well, maybe if I had higher keys.” And so then I just, yeah, rabbit hole. [00:49:00] Went down the rabbit hole, and I’ve, I’ve just kinda been there ever since. And, uh, it really, I think, uh… Let’s see. How long ago did this start? It’s only been about maybe like six months or something like that, so. Keyboard Layout Rabbit Hole Melissa: But in that time so I’ve started, um, building a collection of switches. So I’ve been really interested in both the key caps and the switches. Um, I’ve got my baseboards. I like my Royal Kludge the best. This is… I’m gonna show Brett my Royal Kludge. So, so this is what it’s looking like right now. Brett: Yeah. Melissa: It is very purpley. Um, I did post some pictures. I can… I don’t know if you do pictures in show notes, but I could take some pictures for you It’s got a knob. It’s got, um… Let me see if I can do it real Brett: Do you use the knob. I have a couple keyboards with knobs and even a joystick, and I never actually use them Melissa: Good question. Um, I, I use it, I try to use it for volume at [00:50:00] times, and that’s probably what I use it for the most. But this one does have a… Let’s see if I can get this into focus here, backwards and upside down. It’s gonna be upside down, but you see how you can put, you can put your logo Brett: Oh, yeah. Nice. Melissa: got my The Mac Mommy little logo on there. Otherwise, it gives you the time in military format, so that’s kind of handy to have. Um, but yeah, it’s… To be honest, I, I love the, I love this Royal Kludge because it’s nice and heavy, and I love the form factor. It’s got a number pad, um, because I’m, because I am a grown-ass adult and I need a number pad. Um, but it’s nice and heavy. It doesn’t, it doesn’t move around my desk a lot. I kind of have to type, like, kind of crooked, ’cause that’s just the way my neck goes to the wrong way and stuff like that. So I like being able to fit it on my desk. I have a, I had a larger one made by Red, uh, what is it? Redragon. This is the one that I started [00:51:00] out with. Gonna make lots of noise here. But as you can see, this one is way bigger. And it was, as much as I liked it, I mean, I fell in love with it, but what was happening was my accuracy was, like, really thrown off because I fe- I kept feeling like it just needs to be, like, a couple centimeters to the right or a couple centimeters to the left. It just wasn’t centered very well. So this one, my husband gets all the hand-me-downs, so that one went over onto his desk. Uh, and then I also have a baby keyboard here, and this is another Redragon. This is my little mini one. Brett: that’s, that’s the kind of keyboard I mostly use, like a 70% keyboard. Melissa: Yeah, I think this one’s even 60. Um… Brett: My– The one I’m using right now is, uh, 60. There’s no, there’s no function row, there’s no arrow, there’s no keypad or, like, arrow pad. Um, Melissa: No [00:52:00] arrows? How do you live without arrows? Oh, do you, you mapped your keys to something Brett: so it looks like this, Melissa: nice. I love the Brett: that the, the space bar is split in two. Yeah, my, my, my partner says it looks like, uh, gay ’80s. It’s all pink and blue and purple. Um, but the, the space bar is split, and the right half of mine functions as something called a mod key, and when I hold that down, then my I, J, K, and L keys become arrow keys. Melissa: Oh, wow. Brett: once you get used to it, you never have to take your hand off the home row. Melissa: Oh my God, that must be amazing. Brett: It– Yeah, once you get used to it, it, it’s so… Like, g- moving to a keyboard that doesn’t have that is kind of tortuous. On my MacBook Pro, I have remapped it using Karabiner so that Melissa: [00:53:00] That’s what I’m using. Brett: if I hold, the semicolon down with my pinky, then H-I-J-K-L become, Melissa: Oh, nice. Brett: become arrow keys, so I still don’t have to move my hand all the way down and to the right. Like, that’s such a inefficient movement that then I have to, like… Because I don’t have great feeling in my fingers, so finding, on a low-profile keyboard, finding the, the homing buttons again Melissa: Oh, do you use the humming buttons? See, that’s the thing, I was never taught that. I mean, I took like a ty- I took like a typewriting class back in high school, and I just didn’t like it. I, I just taught myself. I just… I’m an autodidact that way, so I just taught myself. Brett: my dad, back in 1984, we had a typing program on our PCjr, and I Melissa: It wasn’t Mavis Beacon, was it? Brett: remember. I don’t remember. All I know is, like, It taught you touch typing, and it would give you [00:54:00] these lessons, and you would basically just mirror what was on screen. And at the age of seven, I was typing at about 68 words per minute on an, on an old IBM PCjr keyboard. Um, got a lot faster through high school and everything. But yeah, I was, I was, from day one, I was raised to be a touch typist, and, and I took all the classes they had in school. Melissa: But you still touch Brett: labs. Yeah. Melissa: Uh-huh, yeah. So you don’t do the home rows. Brett: No, that is touch Melissa: Oh, touch typing, so you do feel… for the bumps. Brett: Yeah, I feel for the bumps, and then I just, like, my f- my key, my fingers never really leave the Melissa: Oh, yeah. See, I wish I could do Brett: centered home row. Yeah. It’s, it, it’s good. Um, Melissa: And you’re using the split, so my gosh. Brett: What– You get used to that too. Um, like, [00:55:00] I can’t do it with the split far apart. I’ve seen people use, like, splits, like, way out to the sides, and I can’t, my, my brain doesn’t do that. Like, my hands have to be within, like, six inches of each other. Melissa: I always thought, it would be so cool to have something where you could have it, like, raised up like this, right? And use your hands sideways. Brett: Yeah. Well, that’s I mean, that’s essentially, I have, on the bottom of this keyboard, I have these risers. Melissa: Oh, uh-huh. Oh, Brett: So it sits, right now I have it at about a 45-degree tent, tent, tent. Um, but it can go up to more like an 80-degree tent, where you’re actually Melissa: Wow. Brett: uh, almost like you’re clapping, you’re typing. Um, I don’t Melissa: of that. I have a, a, handshake mouse. Brett: Vertical mouse. Melissa: You like… Is that what you have for a mouse too? Brett: no, I, I love Melissa: Trackballs. Oh, trackpads. Oh, okay. Brett: Apple’s Magic Trackpad changed my life. I’ve never used– I’ve never gone back to a [00:56:00] mouse since the first Magic Trackpad came out. Melissa: So you’re all about the gestures then? Brett: yeah, Melissa: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. That’s great. Brett: Bet- bet- better touch tool for the win. Melissa: You know what it is for me, is because of the type of work that I do, and this is very much true for both of us, you do these things because of the type of work that you do. The type of work that I do, I’m in everybody’s homes, so I have to ty- I have to be able to type and use their mouse and, I mean, it’s actually a very dirty job. So I keep hand wipes with me everywhere. Um, that, that was why during the pandemic I was like, “I am not coming to your house and I am not touching the stuff that you just picked your nose and…” Yeah, mm-mm. But, so, so i- it’s been kind of keeping me almost like a purist in a way as far as keyboards have gone all these years. I, I finally just kind of let go and embraced this recently, th- which is why I’m so excited and why I’m just kind of nerding out on it, because when, when I worked [00:57:00] in, like, I’ll call it the industry, um, I got my f- my start in prepress. So I worked in prepress, I was a typesetter, and we had… That’s what I kind of miss. We had the old clunky beige keyboards, and I had my muscle memory such that I think my o- my Option key would have, like, the indentation of my nail on it. You know? ‘Cause I had, just like you have, keys that are programmed. I could… I was a Quark queen. I don’t know if you’re familiar with QuarkXPress? Brett: Oh, yeah. Yeah. I was a graphic designer. I I know Quark. Melissa: Yeah, I loved it. I was… And, and I used it back in the OS 9 days, OS 7 really, is when I started out. Uh, I did not like the OS X vers- OS 10 version of Quark. Did not like it at all. Brett: No, but that’s Melissa: it was slow. Brett: Adobe came out with, what was, what was Adobe’s… InDesign. Yeah. By the time I had started, by the time I had started my own ad agency, we were all InDesign. Melissa: Oh, [00:58:00] nice. Okay. I mean, it was a Brett: and none of the, none of the print shops expected Quark files Melissa: Yeah. Oh, it was so expensive. I remember I had to buy it when I was in college, and I remember it cost, like, $800. I’m probably still paying for that, damn it, in interest. Yeah, so that, that’s how I got my start originally, and that’s how I was doing… I, I went to… So I have, I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts. I went to college in order to be a designer. I wanted to be a designer designer, and that’s what I, what I thought I was good at and thought that I liked doing, ’cause, you know, “Oh, you’re a girl. Go to art school. You like to draw.” You know? I’m always bitter about that because I really wish that I would’ve been able to go… I mean, this was, you know… I’m, I’m 51, so this was back in the day where girls, girls don’t do computers and girls don’t do coding. G- girls don’t do computer science. They didn’t even call it computer science. They didn’t even call it graphic design back then. It was commercial art. Um, so I studied that and, you know, I liked it ’cause I thought, “Well, this is what I could, I could take my art and make [00:59:00] a living into it.” And then fast-forward, um, I just started to fall in love with the technical troubleshooting side of things. So as, as good as I was at the technical typesetting and the technical, like, putting prepress things together, you know, um, uh, key sheets and s- you know, things like that. Do you remember, was there, uh, did you ever use a program called Quick Keys? That was one of the ones Brett: familiar. Melissa: you could map your own keys to things. So w- when I was in prepress and doing typesetting, I used that program and I, I mapped all my keys, and I had all these quick keys and stuff so I could go really, really fast, you know? So when they wanted something done fast, they gave it to me, and I could just fly through documents with this. But then as people learned that I was good at this kind of stuff and troubleshooting, they’re like, “Oh, hey, Roger needs, you know, has a problem. Can you go help him?” So I’d go over to his cubicle, I sit down, and he’s got nothing. You know, he’s got [01:00:00] no quick keys, no nothing, and you just kinda get lost because your muscle memory just adapts to it. And I couldn’t help people the way… And, and that was what it was about for me. I really liked more helping people and troubleshooting and the technology side of things than the actual design process. So I kind of went to the other side with it. And so I just kind of, like, vowed that, okay, I’m not gonna do any kind of, like, customization on my own workstation because then I’ll, my, my muscle memory will map to it, and then when I go to sit down to help somebody else, I won’t… You know, I’ll be so much in my own world that I won’t be able to help them. And so I just kind of, like, remained a, a pu
Spring is in full swing and Tahoe trails are opening for business quickly. In Episode 86, as the snow vaporizes, the boys chat about a bunch of trail tales, some funny, others concerning. After an extended Rumspringa on the ebike, Pow Bot returns to the traditional “Amish” mountain bike, but will he be Sin Bot for still occasionally riding his ebike? The boys share four-wheeling stories with their in-laws, talk about new trails being built, trails north of Truckee being closed for the season and some trails in burn zones being sprayed by the Tahoe and Lassen National Forest with glyphosate, aka Roundup, known to cause cancer. Trail Whisperer asks is it dope or derp to go on a road trip when gas is $6/gallon, jokes about Breckenridge opening local trails to ebikes (only with a medical condition) and a Core Lord calls in with a rant that South Lake Tahoe doesn't have any cool, progressive mountain bike trails. 2:40 – Everything in Tahoe is a month early – riding hero dirt and Pow Bot hanging up his snowboard.3:45 – A recap on Winter 2025-26 – Ended up at average snowfall for the season.6:15 – Pow Bot comes off the ebike Rumspringa and returns to the Amish bike community.11:20 – Early season Tahoe trail conditions – Riding the Tahoe Rim Trail and Flume Trail.12:40 – Trail Whisperer building new trail on Verdi Ridge.16:15 – Tahoe National Forest has closed trails in and around Emigrant Trail, Prosser, Boca.20:00 – Shout out to Tahoe Mountain Sports – helping TW out with a ski binding issue.20:50 – The Truckee Follies – Rated X fundraiser for Downtown Merchants Association.23:15 – Truckee Dirt Union Loam Masters Rally happening May 29-30.24:08 – Sugar Bowl is selling off all their vintage 1950s gondolas for $10k a piece.28:40 – Randy Robbins thinks snowboard beaver tail slapping is DOPE.29:45 – Parkhill has some thoughts about hallowed vs hollowed ground and gatekeeping.31:02 – Reno Tahoe tourism blowing up a sensitive hot spring on social media.33:00 – Gatekeeping – don't blow up the spot when its firing.34:10 – Chris has a rant about public versus private property.40:30 – Jacob really enjoyed VCGP episode – big divide between motorized and non-motorized communities.44:00 – Breckenridge is finally legalizing ebikes…but you have to have a doctor's note.45:40 – Moab allows ebikes on some trail but not all, but Jeeps and side-by-sides are all over.47:55 – Pow Bot's story of four wheeling in Telluride in a rental Chevy Blazer with his in-laws.50:40 – Trail Whisperer's 4x4 story of getting stuck in a Land Cruiser and spending the night in it with his ex father-in-law.58:15 – DOPE or DERP – going on a road trip when gas is $6/gallon.1:00:54 – Tahoe National Forest and Lassen National Forest spraying toxic Roundup weed killer on public lands.1:10:18 – Big Sally calls in with a trip report from Lost Cannon Loop MTB and Sonora Pass ski.1:13:20 – Chad wants to know why there aren't more progressive MTB trails in South Lake Tahoe.1:27:20 – If you get baptized for coming back to the Amish bike, then you ride the ebike, are you a sinner?
If you purchased an iPhone between June 2024 and March 2025, you could receive a payment from the $250 million settlement over Apple's intelligence features on iPhones! Apple could be using Intel chips again in future Apple products. More Mac mini and Mac Studio models are no longer available on the Apple Store. And Apple is now requiring verification for education discounts. US Supreme Court declines to pause order holding Apple in contempt in Epic Games lawsuit. iPhone users could get up to $95 per device as Apple reaches $250M settlement over Siri delays Apple reportedly has a deal to use Intel-made chips again. Intel's stock jumped 13% today over Apple chip manufacturing report Additional Mac mini and Mac Studio models cut from the Apple Store website as AI data centers strain available RAM, SSD supplies Apple requires verification for education discounts, ENDS discounts for k-12 unless you're homeschooled. Tim Cook among CEOs confirmed for President Trump's China trip. More refunds possible for Apple as Trump's 10% global tariffs found illegal too. Apple releases tvOS 26.5, HomePod 26.5, and visionOS 26.5. Apple to make design changes in macOS 27 to address Tahoe quirks. Here's how I finally got Google's uninvited 4GB AI model off my Mac. macOS 27 threatens to bury Time Capsule, FOSS brings a shovel. Apple kicks off new run of A18 Pro chips as MacBook Neo demand exceeds expectations. Not dead yet: Apple Vision still has a future. visionOS 27 will bring these new Vision Pro upgrades. The $1 Steve Jobs coin. Google denies copying Apple's Liquid Glass design for Android. You can purchase Apple's Mac Pro wheels kit for $699. Picks of the Week Leo's Pick: whatcable Christina's Pick: Obsidian's Plugin Site Andy's Pick: Snapseed Photo Editor Jason's Picks: Indigo & Gnome Hosts: Leo Laporte, Andy Ihnatko, Jason Snell, and Christina Warren Download or subscribe to MacBreak Weekly at https://twit.tv/shows/macbreak-weekly. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: zocdoc.com/macbreak scribe.how/macbreak
Welcome Back to So Shameless! To start Tahoe walks back some of his Megan the Stallion comments from last week, the US Supreme Courts gutting of the Voting Rights Act, why Black people give zero resistance to whats going on in politics, Daj and Tahoe argue over whose responsibility it is to fight the good fight in the name of the black community and what leaders the Black community has to effect change today. ENJOY!Tune into our patreon to listen to the full episode ad free!
This week, we're back and unpacking a delightful Mother's Day weekend that got off to a rocky start for one of us. We also took our first visit to Snack World for some peculiar flavors we'll be trying for the camera, manifest a trip to Europe for the new Wordle reality show and more. EPISODE NOTES: Nobody Asked Me, But... (0:48) Differing opinions on AI (5:30) Bidet 101 (16:10) Peaks and Pits presented by Saratoga 250 (31:24) Baby's first haircut (52:12) Our celebrity heroes are teaming up for a new Wordle reality show (1:00:50) A short rib PSA (1:07:36) Our visit to Snack World at Crossgates (1:14:52) Should I return a childhood spelling test to an old lady? (1:27:32) An unsuspecting weekend WellNow visit (1:32:52) Roast or Toast presented by WellNow Urgent Care (1:43:00) Jam jar drinks (1:49:48) Today's episode is brought to by Mohawk Chevrolet, the go-to Chevrolet dealer in the Great Upstate. From the Chevrolet Traverse and the Tahoe to other SUVs like the Equinox and Chevy TRAX, Mohawk Chevrolet has all the latest makes and models as well as a variety of certified pre-owned vehicles. Head to Mohawk Chevrolet off Exit 12 in Malta for top-notch customer service or give them a follow on social media @mohawkchevrolet to check out the team's fun and entertaining car content.
The Tahoe TAP podcast returns with another conversation centered on the Things, Adventures, and People that shape life in the Sierra. Hosts Mike Peron and Rob Galloway are back behind the mic, highlighting the stories, leaders, and organizations working to strengthen the Tahoe-Truckee community. In this episode, the spotlight turns to Teresa Crimmens, Executive Director of Sierra Community House, a nonprofit serving the North Lake Tahoe and Truckee region through programs focused on hunger relief, victim support services, legal assistance, and violence prevention education. Teresa brings more than a decade of experience with the organization and its legacy agencies, originally starting at the Family Resource Center of Truckee and eventually serving as Executive Director there before helping lead the transition into what is now Sierra Community House. As demand for community services continues to grow across the region, Sierra Community House has become one of the area's most vital nonprofit organizations — helping individuals and families navigate challenges ranging from food insecurity to crisis intervention and access to critical resources. Under Crimmens' leadership, the organization continues to expand its reach while strengthening partnerships throughout the Tahoe-Truckee community. In the conversation, Crimmens discusses the evolving needs of mountain communities, the realities facing working families in the region, and how community engagement and prevention-based education are helping create long-term resilience. The episode also explores the organization's broader mission of ensuring Tahoe remains not only a world-class destination, but also a supportive and connected place for the people who call it home.
Ben Fresco has done every job in the ski industry's hardgoods side on his way to his current role as Global Head of Product at Elan Skis. From moving his life from the East Coast to Tahoe and back to the East Coast and now, on a plane traveling the world, Ben's been chasing the perfect turn. And starting out at the legendary Village Ski House, he did over a decade of, not so much ski bumming, learning. Starting in rentals and working his way to the sales floor, to store managing, and really, running the show. Then it was back East to a buyer's role before finding his forever home in Elan. It's a fun episode with one of my podcast's biggest supporters. Colorado sales rep Clem Smith asks the Inappropriate Questions. Ben Fresco Show Notes: 4:00: Intro stories, NH, Attitash, College, Tahoe, and Baseball Golden Ticket 22:00: Elan Skis: Over 75 years of innovation that makes you better. 23:00: More baseball, death, Village Ski Loft manager, perks of buying, moving back east, and Elan 39:00: Outdoor Research: The best is built and tested in the brital conditions of the PNW and beyond 40:00: Building a following in the US, the factory, and going global 49:00: Inappropriate Questions with Clem Smith
Listen to a recap of the top stories of the day from 9to5Mac. 9to5Mac Daily is available on iTunes and Apple's Podcasts app, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Play, or through our dedicated RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players. Sponsored by Bitwarden: Make your life easier with Bitwarden, featuring a secure, open source password manager with end-to-end encryption and seamless autofill across all your devices. New episodes of 9to5Mac Daily are recorded every weekday. Subscribe to our podcast in Apple Podcast or your favorite podcast player to guarantee new episodes are delivered as soon as they're available. Stories discussed in this episode: iOS 27 adding new way to manage your Safari tabs, per report Report: macOS 27 to feature UI tweaks to address some Tahoe design complaints Apple and Intel have reached a deal to produce future chips: report Listen & Subscribe: Apple Podcasts Overcast RSS Spotify TuneIn Google Podcasts Subscribe to support Chance directly with 9to5Mac Daily Plus and unlock: Ad-free versions of every episode Bonus content Catch up on 9to5Mac Daily episodes! Share your thoughts! Drop us a line at happyhour@9to5mac.com. You can also rate us in Apple Podcasts or recommend us in Overcast to help more people discover the show.
PLEASE NOTE: I accidentally say I'm reviewing 'episode 7' twice but I have marked the episode's correctly in the timestamps below. Make sure to leave in the comments which car you'd want to ride down to Tahoe with AND your ranking of worst/best cast members at the end of the season.Timestamps00:00 Intro04:33 BTV EP 5 34:20 BTV EP 6 46:33 BTV EP 71:16:24 BTV EP 8
Kaz has a PhD in human behaviour and MSc in Sport and Exercise Psychology, and has studied our power to perform when faced with adversity. Passionate about helping people believe in themselves she explores what is it about our fears, courage, resilience, and mindset, that drives us to succeed or sabotages us? And Kaz loves to run far. Her trail running journey started in Chamonix, France with the Mont Blanc Marathon and UTMB races. Favorite adventures include Tahoe 200 (3rd F), Moab 240 (2nd F), Ouray 100 (1st F), Tot Dret, Italy (3rd F) and Across the Years (420 miles in 10 days – 3rd F), plus successfully completing 1 crazy loop of The Barkley Marathons, and most recently finishing Last Annual Vol State, a 500K continuous and self-supported race across Tennessee. Follow the new pod insta @trailrunningwomenpod !! Find Kaz @mountainkaz
Welcome back to so shameless! This week we welcome podcaster, actress and producer @ImaniBlair to the couch as Tahoe asks why women cape for Megan The Stallion so much, why she released news of her breakup to the blogs, if she deserves the negative attention that she gets and did she fumble Klay Thompson or did he fumble her?? Also a guy that went on the weirdest date ever...ENJOY!!Tune in this thursday for part two or listen to the entire show ad free on our Patreon!!Socials:Imani@ImaniBlair
Send us Fan MailAs most trail runners we know are glued to tracking the little dots traveling across Arizona for the Cocodona 250, we thought it was a great time to revisit our conversation with one of the athletes on-course, Kilian Korth, who is also a big nutrition science nerd, like us. We talked about:His unique nutritional strategies, including his shift from vegetarianism to a high-fat, low-carb diet.His training regimen and recovery techniquesMental strategies for overcoming challenges during races and trainingKilian Korth lives and trains in Western Colorado, spending time traversing mountain ridges and desert canyons alike. He is an ultra runner and full time coach, focusing on the 200 mile distance and other multi-day efforts. This weekend he became the Moab 240 champion AND Triple Crown Winner, setting a new record after winning the 2025 Bigfoot 200 and Tahoe 200. We chatted with Kilian about some interesting nutrition and mindset strategies he uses, as well as achieving this monumental goal. Other notable running achievements include:1st place, DC Peaks 50 Mile, 20221st place, Mogollon Monster 100, 20241st place, Red Rock Canyon 100K, 2024 2nd place, Bigfoot 200, 2023Ultimately he wants to evolve and strive toward longer and longer distances, eyeing some of the notable long trail FKTs in the United States and elsewhere, like the Colorado Trail, Pacific Crest Trail, and Appalachian trails. Connect with Kilian:IG: instagram.com/runtoughmindsetSubstack: substack.com/@runtoughmindsetMentioned:Precision Hydration Gels: amzn.to/4nL5D3H / Caffeine: amzn.to/46PZBJiCreatine (NR rec): https://nutritional-revolution.com/product/thorne-creatine/Tongkat Ali: amzn.to/3W0evq6CurraNZ: amzn.to/4qggkgzCompression Boots: https://go.shopmy.us/p-56628509Trail Run Project: www.trailrunproject.com/Gaia GPS: www.gaiagps.com/MORE NRApply to work with Kyla → https://p.bttr.to/3ZrwzcFUse code NEWPOD10 for 10% off our meal plans → https://nutritional-revolution.com/products/CONNECT Instagram → www.instagram.com/nutritionalrevolutionSponsorship inquiries → kyla.c@nutritional-revolution.comInterested in having your biomarkers or nutrigenomics checked? Email us at nutritionalrev@gmail.com TRUSTED RESOURCES Supplements (save 20%) → https://us.fullscript.com/welcome/kchannellFeed Club ($20 off) → https://thefeed.com/teams/nutritional-revolutionKyla's top picks → https://shopmy.us/shop/nutrevFollow us @nutritionalrevolution
Welcome Back To So Shameless!! This week we welcome industry exec Pvnch (Punch) to the show as Rell, Yesssterday and Tahoe talk an incident Tahoe had at his studio, tahoe asks "Where is the heart of Hip Hop now?", what happened to the NY sound, and what artists need to do to get recognized in the music business today. ENJOY!!Listen to the full episode on Patreon HERESocials@IamPvnch on InstagramRell@ConversationsWithRellEasy on InstagramYesssterday@Yesssterday on Twitter/X, Instagram
Hour 1: Bob on the Streets: Survivor Edition. Bob took to the streets (Buzzworks in SOMA) with Danae to party with the Survivor community at Ozzy's watch party. Kiss, Marry, Kill: Ozzy, young Boston Rob, and Kyle from Season 48. Plus, Bob went straight to the source about these Ozzy/Emily rumors. Sarah is recommending a new show: The Capture. Need advice? Ask the least qualified people around! Email us: Badadvice973@gmail.com. Vinnie encourages Sarah to live in the moment when it comes to today's nice weather. An update on the terrifying Fairfield Ring camera break-in from a couple weeks ago. Teachers are sharing the dumbest things their students have said. Hour 2: Sounds like the ‘Stranger Things' animated series might not be any good. The ‘Michael' biopic comes out this weekend - sounds like that might not be good either. The Patriots coach is headed to counseling! Pete Davidson finally got all of his tattoos removed… and then got a new one. Leonardo DiCaprio sent Nikki Glaser pasta, pasta, and more pasta. Weddings have changed a lot - these trends are outdated. The Cinderella Rule might help your relationship. Somebody always has to ruin it for the rest of us. Hour 3: Does your young kid know what year it is? Let's find out. Kendall Jenner and Jacob Elordi were seen making out at Coachella. Did Kylie set them up during Oscars season? Kim Kardashian's Paris robbery is getting a 4-part docuseries, but she's not involved. Snow in Tahoe is so back. We need every drop we can get! Hey Hoarders! Keep this stuff: Tour merch, iPhones, iPods, gaming consoles, first editions of books, Pokemon cards, DVDs. Throw out everything else!!! Hour 4: Dave Grohl is talking about his unconventional vocal warm ups. Madonna was ROBBED at Coachella. Will she really miss these clothes when she has every item she's ever worn in a warehouse? Bob's Movie Club's next assignment is here! Watch ‘Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead' on Paramount+ or Pluto before next Thursday! Vinnie is flexing his media literacy muscles. No more greased turkey contests! Why? Probably lawsuits.
Does your young kid know what year it is? Let's find out. Kendall Jenner and Jacob Elordi were seen making out at Coachella. Did Kylie set them up during Oscars season? Kim Kardashian's Paris robbery is getting a 4-part docuseries, but she's not involved. Snow in Tahoe is so back. We need every drop we can get! Hey Hoarders! Keep this stuff: Tour merch, iPhones, iPods, gaming consoles, first editions of books, Pokemon cards, DVDs. Throw out everything else!!!
Welcome Back To So Shameless!!!This week we welcome Billy The Bad Guy of the Needs To Be Studied podcast as Tahoe takes him to Homie Court for his commentary on the last Hard Or Soft play party, Billy meeting a new brother of his recently, Billy feeling like what happened to him as a child actually made him gay, where the origins of our sexuality comes from, Hope Giselles comments around why gay men try straight men who havedeclined their advances, Billys experiences with "straight" men, Marlon Wayans comments aboutr marraige and his mom, and MORE! Tune into part two of this episode releasing this thursday or listen to the full episode on Patreon HERESocialsBilly@Billy.TheBadGuy on InstagramListen to Billys show Needs To Be Studied on all pod streaming platforms