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A man becomes convinced that time itself is counting him down, and every decision suddenly feels fatal. When certainty collides with control, survival may depend on breaking the patterns that once defined a life. The Big Tick by Ross Rocklynne. That's next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast.Ross Rocklynne wrote one of my all-time favorite “wait…how has no one told me about this?” stories, Chicken Farm. Today he drops back into the podcast with another gem, originally unleashed in the very first issue of Cosmos Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazine in September 1953. The magazine survived exactly three more issues before doing the most on-brand thing possible—disappearing into the cosmos and never coming back.From the debut issue of Cosmos on page 121, The Big Tick by Ross Rocklynne…Next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, A lone envoy risks everything to stop a quiet expansion that could ignite a catastrophic war. When fear replaces curiosity, survival depends on whether understanding can arrive before annihilation. Peacemaker by Alan E. Nourse.Newsletter - https://lostscifi.com/free/Buy Me a Coffee - https://lostscifi.com/coffeeFacebook - https://lostscifi.com/facebookYouTube - https://lostscifi.com/youtubeRise - http://Lostscifi.com/riseX - http://Lostscifi.com/xInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/lostscifiguy❤️ ❤️ Thanks to Our Listeners Who Bought Us a Coffee$200 Someone$100 Tony from the Future$75 James Van Maanenberg$50 MizzBassie, Anonymous Listener$25 Someone, Eaten by a Grue, Jeff Lussenden, Fred Sieber, Anne, Craig Hamilton, Dave Wiseman, Bromite Thrip, Marwin de Haan, Future Space Engineer, Fressie, Kevin Eckert, Stephen Kagan, James Van Maanenberg, Irma Stolfo, Josh Jennings, Leber8tr, Conrad Chaffee, Anonymous Listener$15 Every Month Someone$15 SueTheLibrarian, Joannie West, Amy Özkan, Someone, Carolyn Guthleben, Patrick McLendon, Curious Jon, Buz C., Fressie, Anonymous Listener$10 Anonymous Listener$5 Every Month Eaten by a Grue$5 TLD, David, Denis Kalinin, Timothy Buckley, Andre'a, Martin Brown, Ron McFarlan, Tif Love, Chrystene, Richard Hoffman, Anonymous Listenerhttps://lostscifi.com/podcast/the-big-tick-ross-rocklynne/Please participate in our podcast survey https://podcastsurvey.typeform.com/to/gNLcxQlk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
What if the people who feel out of place aren't broken — but simply living in the wrong world? One man's brilliant solution promises escape, fulfillment, and happiness… until the cost of paradise becomes impossible to ignore. The Worlds of Joe Shannon by Frank M. Robinson. That's next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast.There's a lot happening in the Lost Sci-Fi Universe. We'll release Episode #500 on our fourth anniversary, February 24th—and to get there, we're dropping almost an episode a day over the next 24 days.We're going live again on Thursday, February 5th at 8 PM Eastern, and a new edition of our free weekly newsletter will arrive within the next 48 hours. Check the links in the description so you don't miss a thing.Facebook - https://lostscifi.com/facebookYouTube - https://lostscifi.com/youtubeNewsletter - https://lostscifi.com/free/Buy Me a Coffee - https://lostscifi.com/coffeeRise - http://Lostscifi.com/riseX - http://Lostscifi.com/xInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/lostscifiguyFrank M. Robinson is one of those writers whose impact on the Golden Age of science fiction is often overlooked, and this story is a perfect example of why he deserves more recognition. First published in IF Worlds of Science Fiction in March 1954 on page 89, The Worlds of Joe Shannon by Frank M. Robinson…Next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, A routine exploration turns into a test of leadership when unseen danger begins claiming lives without warning. What follows is a tense struggle to understand an invisible enemy before irreversible choices must be made. Thompson's Cat by Robert Moore Williams.❤️ ❤️ Thanks to Our Listeners Who Bought Us a Coffee$200 Someone$100 Tony from the Future$75 James Van Maanenberg$50 MizzBassie, Anonymous Listener$25 Someone, Eaten by a Grue, Jeff Lussenden, Fred Sieber, Anne, Craig Hamilton, Dave Wiseman, Bromite Thrip, Marwin de Haan, Future Space Engineer, Fressie, Kevin Eckert, Stephen Kagan, James Van Maanenberg, Irma Stolfo, Josh Jennings, Leber8tr, Conrad Chaffee, Anonymous Listener$15 Every Month Someone$15 SueTheLibrarian, Joannie West, Amy Özkan, Someone, Carolyn Guthleben, Patrick McLendon, Curious Jon, Buz C., Fressie, Anonymous Listener$10 Anonymous Listener$5 Every Month Eaten by a Grue$5 TLD, David, Denis Kalinin, Timothy Buckley, Andre'a, Martin Brown, Ron McFarlan, Tif Love, Chrystene, Richard Hoffman, Anonymous Listenerhttps://lostscifi.com/podcast/the-worlds-of-joe-shannon-by-frank-m-robinson/Please participate in our podcast survey https://podcastsurvey.typeform.com/to/gNLcxQlk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
When we met up to play in person in Iceland, we answered all your burning questions. Part 1 of a very long recording session! It's thanks to our lovely Patrons that we could even considering playing in person, so we had to do something big like this while we were together. Seriously, thank you all! This was a long session, about 4 and a half hours, but such fun to just chat about our story so far. For context, we did this partway through our live play sessions, and a lot has been released since. You'll also hear us talk about having a video recording going - well that was a PC rebuild ago and apparently we never backed it up to our NAS... so sorry about the missing video! --- Get ad free episodes on Patreon! You can help support the show at http://www.Patreon.com/blighthouse Find us - Email: TheLuckyDiePodcast@gmail.com Website: www.TheLuckyDie.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TLDPod Discord: https://discord.gg/vtgnVAZY44 This is a Blighthouse Studio production. --- Our Amazing Affliates You want TLD themed merch? Head over to our Teepublic store to get our Skulliver, The Key to Murder, Mirror and Hafling Girth designs! https://www.teepublic.com/stores/blight-house?ref_id=27307 Or if Displate is more your aesthetic, check out Kessir's incredible designs - www.displate.com/artist/BlighthouseStudio Use code BLIGHTHOUSE10 to get 10% off UrWizards dice - www.urwizards.com/?ref=BLIGHTHOUSESTUDIO --- Find and support our sponsors at: fableandfolly.com/partners Transcript - Apparently transcription services can't cope with our non US accents, so beware. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Across unimaginable scales of time and space, a young explorer risks everything to prove that intelligence can bloom in the most unlikely conditions. When his search for reason turns into an accusation of harm, the fate of two civilizations hangs on what it truly means to be rational. Some Like it Cold by Dave Dryfoos. That's next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast.Dave Dryfoos has never been on the podcast, but I enjoyed narrating this story and this won't be the last time we hear from him. He was born in San Francisco in 1915. Dryfoos was in the United States Army during World War II, serving in Australia, New Guinea, and the Philippines.He wrote about 20 short stories that were published between 1950 and 1955 and then his literary work came to an end. He retired as assistant hospital administrator at Camarillo State Psychiatric Hospital in California in 1980.If you walked up to a newsstand in November 1952 with a quarter in your pocket you could've purchased the most recent issue of Startling Stories magazine. And if you peeled back the pages you would find an intriguing tale of a spacefarer stumbling upon, well I don't want to give it away. Find out for yourself on page 108, Some Like it Cold by Dave Dryfoos…Next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, What if the people who feel out of place aren't broken — but simply living in the wrong world? One man's brilliant solution promises escape, fulfillment, and happiness… until the cost of paradise becomes impossible to ignore. The Worlds of Joe Shannon by Frank M. Robinson.Buy Me a Coffee - https://lostscifi.com/coffeeNewsletter - https://lostscifi.com/free/Rise - http://Lostscifi.com/riseX - http://Lostscifi.com/xInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/lostscifiguyFacebook - https://lostscifi.com/facebookYouTube - https://lostscifi.com/youtube❤️ ❤️ Thanks to Our Listeners Who Bought Us a Coffee$200 Someone$100 Tony from the Future$75 James Van Maanenberg$50 MizzBassie, Anonymous Listener$25 Someone, Eaten by a Grue, Jeff Lussenden, Fred Sieber, Anne, Craig Hamilton, Dave Wiseman, Bromite Thrip, Marwin de Haan, Future Space Engineer, Fressie, Kevin Eckert, Stephen Kagan, James Van Maanenberg, Irma Stolfo, Josh Jennings, Leber8tr, Conrad Chaffee, Anonymous Listener$15 Every Month Someone$15 SueTheLibrarian, Joannie West, Amy Özkan, Someone, Carolyn Guthleben, Patrick McLendon, Curious Jon, Buz C., Fressie, Anonymous Listener$10 Anonymous Listener$5 Every Month Eaten by a Grue$5 TLD, David, Denis Kalinin, Timothy Buckley, Andre'a, Martin Brown, Ron McFarlan, Tif Love, Chrystene, Richard Hoffman, Anonymous Listenerhttps://lostscifi.com/podcast/some-like-it-cold-by-dave-dryfoos/Please participate in our podcast survey https://podcastsurvey.typeform.com/to/gNLcxQlk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
A lone explorer confronts a force that fractures identity, memory, and destiny itself. In a place where time refuses to behave, survival depends on facing what you were, what you are, and what you may yet become. Time Trap by Frank Belknap Long. That's next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast.Discovered another 5 star rating and review today on Audible from Laura Van Wormer. “Scott Miller's narration of old science fiction short stories is just wonderful. Of course, so is the material! Everyone from Ray Bradbury to HG Wells to Lovecraft to Asimov to Jack London and on and on... But there are also the one-timer sci-fi short-story writers that are relatively unknown and Miller provides a little background on them all. Extremely well done. Bravo, Scott Miller!”Thank you for that awesome review Laura. We don't care where you listen, we're just glad you're here and if you want to give give us a 5 star review, if you think we deserve it, we would appreciate it.This is a different kind of time travel story. Frank Belknap Long, a master of weird fiction, explores what happens when time itself turns predatory. Let's do a little time traveling of our own, to the Winter 1948 issue of Planet Stories magazine and discover this eerie tale on page 109, Time Trap by Frank Belknap Long…Next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, Across unimaginable scales of time and space, a young explorer risks everything to prove that intelligence can bloom in the most unlikely conditions. When his search for reason turns into an accusation of harm, the fate of two civilizations hangs on what it truly means to be rational.Buy Me a Coffee - https://lostscifi.com/coffeeNewsletter - https://lostscifi.com/free/Rise - http://Lostscifi.com/riseX - http://Lostscifi.com/xInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/lostscifiguyFacebook - https://lostscifi.com/facebookYouTube - https://lostscifi.com/youtube❤️ ❤️ Thanks to Our Listeners Who Bought Us a Coffee$200 Someone$100 Tony from the Future$75 James Van Maanenberg$50 MizzBassie, Anonymous Listener$25 Someone, Eaten by a Grue, Jeff Lussenden, Fred Sieber, Anne, Craig Hamilton, Dave Wiseman, Bromite Thrip, Marwin de Haan, Future Space Engineer, Fressie, Kevin Eckert, Stephen Kagan, James Van Maanenberg, Irma Stolfo, Josh Jennings, Leber8tr, Conrad Chaffee, Anonymous Listener$15 Every Month Someone$15 SueTheLibrarian, Joannie West, Amy Özkan, Someone, Carolyn Guthleben, Patrick McLendon, Curious Jon, Buz C., Fressie, Anonymous Listener$10 Anonymous Listener$5 Every Month Eaten by a Grue$5 TLD, David, Denis Kalinin, Timothy Buckley, Andre'a, Martin Brown, Ron McFarlan, Tif Love, Chrystene, Richard Hoffman, Anonymous Listenerhttps://lostscifi.com/podcast/time-trap-by-frank-belknap-long/Please participate in our podcast survey https://podcastsurvey.typeform.com/to/gNLcxQlk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
An intelligence from beyond Earth arrives convinced it has found salvation for its dying race. What follows is a terrifying collision between certainty and misunderstanding, where survival depends on knowing what it truly means to belong. The Invader by Alfred Coppel. That's next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast.Today's story is the seventh for author Alfred Coppel on our podcast and it is a quiet classic that proves invasion doesn't always arrive with explosions. Published in the February 1953 Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy on page 132, The Invader by Alfred Coppel…Next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, A lone explorer confronts a force that fractures identity, memory, and destiny itself. In a place where time refuses to behave, survival depends on facing what you were, what you are, and what you may yet become. Time Trap by Frank Belknap Long.Buy Me a Coffee - https://lostscifi.com/coffeeNewsletter - https://lostscifi.com/free/Rise - http://Lostscifi.com/riseX - http://Lostscifi.com/xInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/lostscifiguyFacebook - https://lostscifi.com/facebookYouTube - https://lostscifi.com/youtube❤️ ❤️ Thanks to Our Listeners Who Bought Us a Coffee$200 Someone$100 Tony from the Future$75 James Van Maanenberg$50 MizzBassie, Anonymous Listener$25 Someone, Eaten by a Grue, Jeff Lussenden, Fred Sieber, Anne, Craig Hamilton, Dave Wiseman, Bromite Thrip, Marwin de Haan, Future Space Engineer, Fressie, Kevin Eckert, Stephen Kagan, James Van Maanenberg, Irma Stolfo, Josh Jennings, Leber8tr, Conrad Chaffee, Anonymous Listener$15 Every Month Someone$15 SueTheLibrarian, Joannie West, Amy Özkan, Someone, Carolyn Guthleben, Patrick McLendon, Curious Jon, Buz C., Fressie, Anonymous Listener$10 Anonymous Listener$5 Every Month Eaten by a Grue$5 TLD, David, Denis Kalinin, Timothy Buckley, Andre'a, Martin Brown, Ron McFarlan, Tif Love, Chrystene, Richard Hoffman, Anonymous Listenerhttps://lostscifi.com/podcast/the-invader-by-alfred-coppel/Please participate in our podcast survey https://podcastsurvey.typeform.com/to/gNLcxQlk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Last summer, I got invited to be on TV. Exciting, right? Then they asked a simple follow-up question: "Can you send over your media kit?" And I froze. I didn't have one. I wasn't even totally sure what should be in one. Fast forward to this winter, as I start doing more speaking, partnerships, and visibility work for both my farm and My Digital Farmer -- I realized this was a gap I needed to close. So I invited someone back on the show who lives and breathes this stuff. On today's episode, I'm joined again by Erika Tebbens from Taste the Local Difference. If Erika sounds familiar, she was previously on the podcast in Episode 322, where we talked about collaborations as a powerful farm marketing strategy. This time, we're diving into something just as practical -- and often overlooked:
When technology enters politics, human instincts collide with inhuman logic. What begins as a clever shortcut toward power escalates into a reckoning no backroom deal can control. Electronic Landslide by Clyde Hostetter. That's next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast.More 5 star reviews on Apple Podcasts, this from JCMargerison on Apple Podcasts US. “Best of all Worlds. No Sci-Fi podcast content or context compares to LSF (Lost Sci-Fi) and no one does it like Scott Miller. He doesn't just read the stories. He tells them.”Thanks JC! Your reviews make a difference and we would love it if you would you give us 5 stars and a glowing review, if you think we deserve it, wherever you listen.Clyde Hostetter makes his debut on the podcast with one of just two stories he published during the golden age of science fiction. His first appeared in 1958, and today's selection comes from the February 1960 issue of Future Science Fiction, page 110, Electronic Landslide by Clyde Hostetter…Next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, An intelligence from beyond Earth arrives convinced it has found salvation for its dying race. What follows is a terrifying collision between certainty and misunderstanding, where survival depends on knowing what it truly means to belong. The Invader by Alfred Coppel.Buy Me a Coffee - https://lostscifi.com/coffeeNewsletter - https://lostscifi.com/free/Rise - http://Lostscifi.com/riseX - http://Lostscifi.com/xInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/lostscifiguyFacebook - https://lostscifi.com/facebookYouTube - https://lostscifi.com/youtube❤️ ❤️ Thanks to Our Listeners Who Bought Us a Coffee$200 Someone$100 Tony from the Future$75 James Van Maanenberg$50 MizzBassie, Anonymous Listener$25 Someone, Eaten by a Grue, Jeff Lussenden, Fred Sieber, Anne, Craig Hamilton, Dave Wiseman, Bromite Thrip, Marwin de Haan, Future Space Engineer, Fressie, Kevin Eckert, Stephen Kagan, James Van Maanenberg, Irma Stolfo, Josh Jennings, Leber8tr, Conrad Chaffee, Anonymous Listener$15 Every Month Someone$15 SueTheLibrarian, Joannie West, Amy Özkan, Someone, Carolyn Guthleben, Patrick McLendon, Curious Jon, Buz C., Fressie, Anonymous Listener$10 Anonymous Listener$5 Every Month Eaten by a Grue$5 TLD, David, Denis Kalinin, Timothy Buckley, Andre'a, Martin Brown, Ron McFarlan, Tif Love, Chrystene, Richard Hoffman, Anonymous Listenerhttps://lostscifi.com/podcast/electronic-landslide-by-clyde-hostetter/Please participate in our podcast survey https://podcastsurvey.typeform.com/to/gNLcxQlk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Drawn by a summons he does not understand, a solitary wanderer follows an old path back into forgotten places. What he finds there tests instinct, loyalty, and the cost of survival in a world shaped by human science. Keepers of the House by Lester del Rey. That's next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast.We're often asked why we narrate the stories we do. With today's selection, the answer is simple: it's different, it breaks the mold and reminds us why we love narrating these vintage sci-fi stories.Published in the January 1956 issue of Fantastic Universe on page 82, Keepers of the House by Lester del Rey…Next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, When technology enters politics, human instincts collide with inhuman logic. What begins as a clever shortcut toward power escalates into a reckoning no backroom deal can control. Electronic Landslide by Clyde Hostetter.Buy Me a Coffee - https://lostscifi.com/coffeeNewsletter - https://lostscifi.com/free/Rise - http://Lostscifi.com/riseX - http://Lostscifi.com/xInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/lostscifiguyFacebook - https://lostscifi.com/facebookYouTube - https://lostscifi.com/youtube❤️ ❤️ Thanks to Our Listeners Who Bought Us a Coffee$200 Someone$100 Tony from the Future$75 James Van Maanenberg$50 MizzBassie, Anonymous Listener$25 Someone, Eaten by a Grue, Jeff Lussenden, Fred Sieber, Anne, Craig Hamilton, Dave Wiseman, Bromite Thrip, Marwin de Haan, Future Space Engineer, Fressie, Kevin Eckert, Stephen Kagan, James Van Maanenberg, Irma Stolfo, Josh Jennings, Leber8tr, Conrad Chaffee, Anonymous Listener$15 Every Month Someone$15 SueTheLibrarian, Joannie West, Amy Özkan, Someone, Carolyn Guthleben, Patrick McLendon, Curious Jon, Buz C., Fressie, Anonymous Listener$10 Anonymous Listener$5 Every Month Eaten by a Grue$5 TLD, David, Denis Kalinin, Timothy Buckley, Andre'a, Martin Brown, Ron McFarlan, Tif Love, Chrystene, Richard Hoffman, Anonymous ListenerPlease participate in our podcast survey https://podcastsurvey.typeform.com/to/gNLcxQlk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
A mysterious delivery brings Joe Linger a device that can reshape reality itself — and suddenly the universe feels wide open. But with limitless power comes danger, curiosity, and a decision that will change his place in the cosmos forever. We're Off to Mars! by Joe Gibson. That's next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast.Joe Gibson, born in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1924, was a lifelong science fiction enthusiast who also worked as an illustrator, with his artwork appearing only in fanzines. Between 1948 and 1961, Gibson published roughly a dozen short stories, contributing quietly but steadily to the genre he loved. Today's story was originally published in the September 1951 issue of Imagination, appearing on page 126 under the byline Carlton Furth, We're Off to Mars! by Joe Gibson…Next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, Drawn by a summons he does not understand, a solitary wanderer follows an old path back into forgotten places. What he finds there tests instinct, loyalty, and the cost of survival in a world shaped by human science. Keepers of the House by Lester del Rey.Buy Me a Coffee - https://lostscifi.com/coffeeNewsletter - https://lostscifi.com/free/Rise - http://Lostscifi.com/riseX - http://Lostscifi.com/xInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/lostscifiguyFacebook - https://lostscifi.com/facebookYouTube - https://lostscifi.com/youtube❤️ ❤️ Thanks to Our Listeners Who Bought Us a Coffee$200 Someone$100 Tony from the Future$75 James Van Maanenberg$50 MizzBassie, Anonymous Listener$25 Someone, Eaten by a Grue, Jeff Lussenden, Fred Sieber, Anne, Craig Hamilton, Dave Wiseman, Bromite Thrip, Marwin de Haan, Future Space Engineer, Fressie, Kevin Eckert, Stephen Kagan, James Van Maanenberg, Irma Stolfo, Josh Jennings, Leber8tr, Conrad Chaffee, Anonymous Listener$15 Every Month Someone$15 SueTheLibrarian, Joannie West, Amy Özkan, Someone, Carolyn Guthleben, Patrick McLendon, Curious Jon, Buz C., Fressie, Anonymous Listener$10 Anonymous Listener$5 Every Month Eaten by a Grue$5 TLD, David, Denis Kalinin, Timothy Buckley, Andre'a, Martin Brown, Ron McFarlan, Tif Love, Chrystene, Richard Hoffman, Anonymous Listenerhttps://lostscifi.com/podcast/were-off-to-mars-by-joe-gibson/Please participate in our podcast survey https://podcastsurvey.typeform.com/to/gNLcxQlk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Far from help and beyond certainty, a returning astronaut confronts a problem that logic cannot solve. Survival depends on a forbidden experiment that could unlock impossible insight—or erase him completely. Last Resort by Stephen Bartholomew. That's next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast.Whether you've been listening since day one or you're just joining us now, we want to sincerely thank you for being part of The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast. In one short month, we'll reach our 4th Anniversary, a milestone that still feels unreal, and we've set our sights on something extraordinary: Episode 500 on February 24, 2026, exactly four years after our very first episode went live. Reaching that moment means pushing harder than ever, releasing nearly an episode every day over the next month, driven by a deep love for forgotten and underrated vintage science fiction—and by the listeners who made this journey possible. This milestone isn't just ours; it belongs to everyone who pressed play, shared an episode, gave us a 5 star rating and review and kept these stories alive. Thank you!An astronaut alone between Mars and Earth discovers a problem no computer can solve. Whether he makes it back to earth depends on him or does it? The publication Analog Science Fact - Science Fiction, the date April 1963 the page where it begins, 36, Last Resort by Stephen Bartholomew…Next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, A mysterious delivery brings Joe Linger a device that can reshape reality itself — and suddenly the universe feels wide open. But with limitless power comes danger, curiosity, and a decision that will change his place in the cosmos forever. We're Off to Mars! by Joe GibsonBuy Me a Coffee - https://lostscifi.com/coffeeNewsletter - https://lostscifi.com/free/Rise - http://Lostscifi.com/riseX - http://Lostscifi.com/xInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/lostscifiguyFacebook - https://lostscifi.com/facebookYouTube - https://lostscifi.com/youtube❤️ ❤️ Thanks to Our Listeners Who Bought Us a Coffee$200 Someone$100 Tony from the Future$75 James Van Maanenberg$50 MizzBassie, Anonymous Listener$25 Someone, Eaten by a Grue, Jeff Lussenden, Fred Sieber, Anne, Craig Hamilton, Dave Wiseman, Bromite Thrip, Marwin de Haan, Future Space Engineer, Fressie, Kevin Eckert, Stephen Kagan, James Van Maanenberg, Irma Stolfo, Josh Jennings, Leber8tr, Conrad Chaffee, Anonymous Listener$15 Every Month Someone$15 SueTheLibrarian, Joannie West, Amy Özkan, Someone, Carolyn Guthleben, Patrick McLendon, Curious Jon, Buz C., Fressie, Anonymous Listener$10 Anonymous Listener$5 Every Month Eaten by a Grue$5 TLD, David, Denis Kalinin, Timothy Buckley, Andre'a, Martin Brown, Ron McFarlan, Tif Love, Chrystene, Richard Hoffman, Anonymous ListenerPlease participate in our podcast survey https://podcastsurvey.typeform.com/to/gNLcxQlk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Returning to what should have been the warmth of home in Daemaerius' capital, the trio feel the biting cold as they head to speak with a dragon. Rhal speaks up for the voiceless and Squash is told to speak no more. What answers will Wurunwa be able to give? I guess we're about to find out... Thanks to Karim Kronfli for voicing Wurunwa! --- Get ad free episodes on Patreon! You can help support the show at http://www.Patreon.com/blighthouse Find us - Email: TheLuckyDiePodcast@gmail.com Website: www.TheLuckyDie.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TLDPod Discord: https://discord.gg/vtgnVAZY44 This is a Blighthouse Studio production. --- Our Amazing Affliates You want TLD themed merch? Head over to our Teepublic store to get our Skulliver, The Key to Murder, Mirror and Hafling Girth designs! https://www.teepublic.com/stores/blight-house?ref_id=27307 Or if Displate is more your aesthetic, check out Kessir's incredible designs - www.displate.com/artist/BlighthouseStudio Use code BLIGHTHOUSE10 to get 10% off UrWizards dice - www.urwizards.com/?ref=BLIGHTHOUSESTUDIO --- Find and support our sponsors at: fableandfolly.com/partners Transcript - Apparently transcription services can't cope with our non US accents, so beware. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
They took years to build the rocket and minutes to launch it, sending two ordinary men where others had vanished forever. Officially, it was a simple trip around the moon. Unofficially, it was a gamble born of desperation, pride, and a belief that ignorance might succeed where genius had failed. They Reached For The Moon by William Oberfield. That's next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast.Before the Moon became a destination, it was only a dream—distant, untouchable, and forever beyond reach. Today, it's easy to forget what an impossible idea space travel once was, no human would even orbit the earth for another 10 years after this story was written. No human being had ever seen the far side of the Moon until Apollo 8 circled it in December of 1968. For centuries, the Moon belonged to poets and storytellers—not astronauts.Seventeen years earlier, in 1951, William Oberfield dared to imagine what had never been done. He wrote this story at a time when rockets were crude, computers barely existed, and spaceflight was a lot closer to fantasy than engineering. Yet Oberfield looked up and saw not mystery alone, but possibility.Only four of William Oberfield's stories were published, this was the last of them. From the November 1951 issue of Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy on page 80, They Reached For The Moon by William Oberfield…Next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, Far from help and beyond certainty, a returning astronaut confronts a problem that logic cannot solve. Survival depends on a forbidden experiment that could unlock impossible insight—or erase him completely. Last Resort by Stephen Bartholomew.Buy Me a Coffee - https://lostscifi.com/coffeeNewsletter - https://lostscifi.com/free/Rise - http://Lostscifi.com/riseX - http://Lostscifi.com/xInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/lostscifiguyFacebook - https://lostscifi.com/facebookYouTube - https://lostscifi.com/youtube❤️ ❤️ Thanks to Our Listeners Who Bought Us a Coffee$200 Someone$100 Tony from the Future$75 James Van Maanenberg$50 MizzBassie, Anonymous Listener$25 Someone, Eaten by a Grue, Jeff Lussenden, Fred Sieber, Anne, Craig Hamilton, Dave Wiseman, Bromite Thrip, Marwin de Haan, Future Space Engineer, Fressie, Kevin Eckert, Stephen Kagan, James Van Maanenberg, Irma Stolfo, Josh Jennings, Leber8tr, Conrad Chaffee, Anonymous Listener$15 Every Month Someone$15 SueTheLibrarian, Joannie West, Amy Özkan, Someone, Carolyn Guthleben, Patrick McLendon, Curious Jon, Buz C., Fressie, Anonymous Listener$10 Anonymous Listener$5 Every Month Eaten by a Grue$5 TLD, David, Denis Kalinin, Timothy Buckley, Andre'a, Martin Brown, Ron McFarlan, Tif Love, Chrystene, Richard Hoffman, Anonymous Listenerhttps://lostscifi.com/podcast/they-reached-for-the-moon-by-william-oberfield-episode-472/Please participate in our podcast survey https://podcastsurvey.typeform.com/to/gNLcxQlk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
On the deadly sands of Mars, a grieving pioneer turns survival into a ruthless game of patience, grit, and vengeance. As the desert closes in, every mile reveals who is truly prepared to face death. Death Walks on Mars by Alan J. Ramm. That's next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast.A slightly belated—but very enthusiastic—thank you to TLD, who bought us a coffee before Christmas and somehow managed to wait patiently while we finally caught up. About a month ago, TLD sent along this message from Canada:“A Merry Early Christmas to you from Canada!”Well… Merry Very Belated Christmas, TLD!
The duo of Lafian and Zaltanna enter the Eventide convention to represent family, the gods and our heroes in a global discuss of tactics, and the future of the world should it be saved. Lafian advocates for justice for the slain and Zaltanna tries diplomacy to great effect. Will they be able to see peace for the future? I guess we're about to find out... --- Get ad free episodes on Patreon! You can help support the show at http://www.Patreon.com/blighthouse Find us - Email: TheLuckyDiePodcast@gmail.com Website: www.TheLuckyDie.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TLDPod Discord: https://discord.gg/vtgnVAZY44 This is a Blighthouse Studio production. --- Our Amazing Affliates You want TLD themed merch? Head over to our Teepublic store to get our Skulliver, The Key to Murder, Mirror and Hafling Girth designs! https://www.teepublic.com/stores/blight-house?ref_id=27307 Or if Displate is more your aesthetic, check out Kessir's incredible designs - www.displate.com/artist/BlighthouseStudio Use code BLIGHTHOUSE10 to get 10% off UrWizards dice - www.urwizards.com/?ref=BLIGHTHOUSESTUDIO --- Find and support our sponsors at: fableandfolly.com/partners Transcript - Apparently transcription services can't cope with our non US accents, so beware. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In a small village, the destruction of all that is edible forces the villagers to turn to a powerful wizard in order to survive. Will Romy and Julie get their wedding cake? Can Fearnot Helly and Malik learn to summon tasty tasty food? Will the wishes of the town come true? I guess we're about to find out... --- Get ad free episodes on Patreon! You can help support the show at http://www.Patreon.com/blighthouse Find us - Email: TheLuckyDiePodcast@gmail.com Website: www.TheLuckyDie.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TLDPod Discord: https://discord.gg/vtgnVAZY44 This is a Blighthouse Studio production. --- Our Amazing Affliates You want TLD themed merch? Head over to our Teepublic store to get our Skulliver, The Key to Murder, Mirror and Hafling Girth designs! https://www.teepublic.com/stores/blight-house?ref_id=27307 Or if Displate is more your aesthetic, check out Kessir's incredible designs - www.displate.com/artist/BlighthouseStudio Use code BLIGHTHOUSE10 to get 10% off UrWizards dice - www.urwizards.com/?ref=BLIGHTHOUSESTUDIO --- Check out the Fumbled Anthology - The Burning Stars with our very only Volonda airs 4th of Jan at 6pm AEDT - https://open.spotify.com/show/2LPi1UIVDv7qchg5k20VVZ --- Find and support our sponsors at: fableandfolly.com/partners Transcript - Apparently transcription services can't cope with our non US accents, so beware. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Lafian and Zaltanna meet up early to travel to The Eventide Protectorate, formally the Gentleman's Duelling Club, to mingle with the powerful of Bikron to determine it's future. Lafian meets a retired Queen and Zaltanna is a good friend to Apenamon. Will this pre mingling session settle nerves of the leaders of Bikron? I guess we're about to find out... --- Get ad free episodes on Patreon! You can help support the show at http://www.Patreon.com/blighthouse You want TLD themed merch? Head over to our Teepublic store to get our Skulliver, The Key to Murder, Mirror and Hafling Girth designs! https://www.teepublic.com/stores/blight-house?ref_id=27307 Find us - Email: TheLuckyDiePodcast@gmail.com Website: www.TheLuckyDie.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TLDPod Discord: https://discord.gg/vtgnVAZY44 This is a Blighthouse Studio production. --- Find and support our sponsors at: fableandfolly.com/partners Transcript - Apparently transcription services can't cope with our non US accents, so beware. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dudley Land executives review their record-breaking 2025 performance, hitting a 10-year high in business activity, while addressing the critical field landman workforce shortage through strategic rate increases and aggressive hiring plans. Get the inside perspective on leadership transitions, technology development, and 2026 expansion into right-of-way acquisition.What You'll LearnHow Dudley achieved record 2025 performance across oil, gas, and renewablesWhy landman rate increases are finally happening industry-wideLeadership development strategies for scaling land management operationsTechnology solutions addressing field landman workforce challenges2026 expansion plans for right-of-way and new energy projectsTime Stamps00:00 - TLD 055 - Christmas Cocktail Hour 202500:59 - Reflecting on a Busy Year03:35 - Northeast Operations Update05:13 - Gas Prices and Gadgets12:03 - Landman Workforce Challenges21:41 - Growth & Standardization Initiatives24:33 - Exciting Developments for 202628:00 - Leadership Challenges and Reflections35:54 - Looking Ahead: Future Plans and Personal InsightsSnippets from the Episode"It's been something that has needed to happen, and we've tried to stick our neck out there a little bit just to try to tell the story and kind of tell the reality of it."- Brent Broussard on landman rate increases"We're seeing an aging workforce and the field landman is a crucial part of this business... The majority of the workforce is forties and older. So we've got to figure out a way to get those younger landmen in here."- Brandon Ward on workforce development"The biggest transition for me has been being able to let go of operations and finding my way to be not as involved in the day-to-day."- Brent Broussard on executive leadership evolutionKey TakeawaysRecord 2025 Performance Across All Energy SectorsStrategic Leadership Pipeline Development & Internal PromotionsIndustry-Wide Landman Rate Increases Finally HappeningAAPL Engagement in Field Landman Workforce SolutionsKudu Land Management System Ready for Market LaunchDudley Staffing Achieving 95% Operational Efficiency2026 Right-of-Way Business Expansion StrategyHelp us improve our podcast! Share your thoughts in our quick survey.ResourcesNeed Help With A Project? Meet With DudleyNeed Help with Staffing? Connect with Dudley Staffing Streamline Your Title Process with Dudley Select TitleWatch On YoutubeFollow Dudley Land Co. On LinkedInSubscribe To Our Newsletter, The Land Dept. MonthlyHave Questions? Email usMore from Our HostsConnect with Brent on LinkedInConnect with Brandon on LinkedInConnect with Steve on LinkedInConnect with Khalil on LinkedIn
On this episode of Destination on the Left, I talk with Chris Mondini, Vice President of Stakeholder Engagement and Managing Director of Europe for ICANN, and Dusty Trevino, CEO of Dot Vegas. We will learn how top-level domains are created and what domains like Dot Vegas can do to help a brand stand out. Our conversation is informative, educational, and will give you a whole new perspective on your brand's Internet address. What You Will Learn in This Episode: How top-level domains (TLDs) are created and why the addressing system of the Internet matters Why distinctive TLDs, like Dot Vegas, offer a strategic advantage for destination branding and marketing What it takes to register your own top-level domain, including the technical, financial, and organizational requirements necessary How geographic domains (such as .vegas, .nyc, and .brussels) can strengthen place identity and foster trust Why cities and entrepreneurs collaborate in launching city-based TLDs, and how community endorsement is essential for successful implementation How adopting new TLDs can make brands more memorable to prospective visitors, and help organizations stand out from the crowd Demystifying Top-Level Domains A memorable web address is more than just a convenience, it's an essential tool for branding, discoverability, and trust. Chris Mondini, Vice President of Stakeholder Engagement and Managing Director of Europe for ICANN, and Dusty Trevino, CEO of Dot Vegas, discuss how TLDs like .vegas, .paris, and .nyc can be invaluable assets for destination marketers, tourism professionals, and place branding experts. Most consider internet domains an afterthought, but as Chris explains, they're the backbone of online connectivity. The Internet isn't a single global network—it's tens of thousands of independently operated networks that agree to connect using common protocols and a shared addressing system. Fifteen years ago, there were only a handful: .com, .net, .org, and so on. Today, there are TLDs for cities (.nyc, .paris), concepts (.guru, .xyz), and more, opening new doors for personalized branding and community-building online. The Dot Vegas Story Dusty offers an inside look into operating Dot Vegas, which shows how a custom domain can amplify a destination's brand. Unlike some city domains, .vegas is globally accessible; anyone can register, regardless of residency. This flexibility enables local businesses, tour operators, and organizations worldwide to associate themselves with the Vegas brand, strengthening their ties to the city's renowned excitement and appeal. Why Top-Level Domains Matter for Marketers A custom TLD isn't just a vanity URL. Operating a TLD means running a piece of internet infrastructure and directly controlling your digital address, data queries, policies, and trust signals. For marketers, there are lots of benefits: Brand Identity: A city or region TLD immediately communicates place and can reinforce local pride. Discoverability: Words like "weddings.vegas" are memorable, making campaigns more effective and easier to recall. Trust & Security: A TLD operated or endorsed by local government or a trusted entity assures users of authenticity—crucial for e-commerce, municipal services, and tourism. Data Insights: TLD operators gain visibility into traffic and usage, supporting more targeted digital strategies. If you see ".yourcity," you can trust you're connecting with the real brand. Top-level domains aren't just technical jargon; they're strategic marketing tools that can transform destination branding, promote community engagement, and build trust with global audiences. Resources: Website: https://www.icann.org/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cmondini/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustin-trevino-743064a/ We value your thoughts and feedback and would love to hear from you. Leave us a review on your favorite streaming platform to let us know what you want to hear more of. Here is a quick tutorial on how to leave us a rating and review on iTunes!
pWotD Episode 3105: .xxx Welcome to popular Wiki of the Day, spotlighting Wikipedia's most visited pages, giving you a peek into what the world is curious about today.With 210,403 views on Saturday, 1 November 2025 our article of the day is .xxx..xxx (pronounced "dot triple-ecks" or "dot ecks ecks ecks") is a sponsored top-level domain (sTLD) intended as a voluntary option for pornographic sites on the Internet. The sponsoring organization is the International Foundation for Online Responsibility (IFFOR). The registry is operated by ICM Registry LLC. The ICANN Board voted to approve the sTLD on 18 March 2011. It went into operation on 15 April 2011.The TLD entered its sunrise period on 7 September 2011 at 16:00 UTC; the sunrise period ended 28 October 2011. Landrush period lasted from 8 November through 25 November, and general availability commenced on 6 December 2011.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 02:59 UTC on Sunday, 2 November 2025.For the full current version of the article, see .xxx on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm standard Aditi.
Learn why this domain company has scooped up two competitors. Corporate domain name registrar and brand protection company Com Laude announced two acquisitions in two weeks. First, it acquired FairWinds Partners, a consultancy for brand owners that helped companies apply for 133 domains in the last round of TLD expansion. Then, it announced the pending […] Post link: Inside Com Laude's expansion – DNW Podcast #555 © DomainNameWire.com 2025. This is copyrighted content. Domain Name Wire full-text RSS feeds are made available for personal use only, and may not be published on any site without permission. If you see this message on a website, contact editor (at) domainnamewire.com. Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.
In this solo deep dive, I explore Freename, the blockchain-based domain platform that's reimagining digital identity—one TLD at a time. With a fresh $6.5M Series A (July 2025) and cross-chain support, Freename lets anyone not just register domains—but own and monetize entire top-level domains (TLDs) like .studio, .dao, or .creator. We unpack: Why Web2 domains are broken How Freename bridges Web2 + Web3 (yes, DNS compatible!) Why TLD ownership is the new frontier of identity and revenue Its approach to trademark protection, royalties, and decentralized naming infrastructure In a world where digital identity is fragmented and rented, Freename offers sovereignty.
When most people think about farm merch—aka swag—they imagine T-shirts with your logo. Maybe a tote bag. Maybe a hat. But what if I told you that farm swag is one of the most underutilized marketing tools in your farm business? Swag isn't just “extra.” It's strategic. Done right, it becomes a walking billboard… a conversation starter… a loyalty builder… and a bridge that turns casual customers into brand superfans. In today's episode, we're sharing 20 different ways you can use your farm merch to support some of your bigger marketing goals. Find one of these ideas and implement it! Podcast Sponsors: Local Line: Local Line is my preferred e-commerce platform for farmers. Are you looking for a new solution for your farm? I can't recommend it enough. Easy-to-use inventory management, great customer service, continuous improvement, and a culture dedicated to equipping farmers with marketing expertise. Local Line is offering a free premium feature for free for one year on top of your paid subscription. Claim your discount by signing up for a Local Line account today and using the coupon code: MDF2025. Head to my special affiliate link to get started: www.mydigitalfarmer.com/localline Taste the Local Difference: If your marketing to-do list is starting to feel like a second full-time job, it's time to call in the experts at Taste the Local Difference (TLD). With over 20 years of experience, TLD is the go-to marketing agency for purpose-driven farmers and local food entrepreneurs. Their sole focus is helping businesses like yours succeed—from creating marketing plans that reach your ideal customers, to designing eye-catching labels and packaging, to building beautiful, search-optimized websites. No wonder most of their clients see an average 200% return on their investment within the first year! And here's a special offer just for My Digital Farmer listeners: visit LocalFoodMarketing.com/podcast, fill out a no-obligation marketing inquiry form, and mention My Digital Farmer to get 10% off any marketing service (up to $300). Farm Marketing School: Marketing doesn't have to feel overwhelming! Farm Marketing School is my step-by-step system for building a profitable farm marketing plan. Inside, you'll get access to bite-sized marketing projects like:
Instagram Stories are one of the most underutilized and powerful tools in a farmer's marketing toolbox. They're fast. Raw. Relatable. And they let your audience peek behind the curtain of your farm life, creating trust and connection in just a few frames. But what the heck should you even talk about in a IG Story? In this episode, I break down 8 specific Story content ideas that I use every single week to show up consistently and connect with my audience — especially during the busy farm season. Whether you're totally new to IG Stories platform or you're ready to make them more intentional and strategic, this episode will give you the clarity and the pep talk to start. Your challenge this week: 1. Pick one new Instagram Story idea from this episode 2. Post it to your Stories today. Want help with the tech side? Join my new 7-Day IG Stories Challenge inside Farm Marketing School. Join FMS here Podcast Sponsors: Local Line: Local Line is my preferred e-commerce platform for farmers. Are you looking for a new solution for your farm? I can't recommend it enough. Easy-to-use inventory management, great customer service, continuous improvement, and a culture dedicated to equipping farmers with marketing expertise. Local Line is offering a free premium feature for free for one year on top of your paid subscription. Claim your discount by signing up for a Local Line account today and using the coupon code: MDF2025. Head to my special affiliate link to get started: www.mydigitalfarmer.com/localline Taste the Local Difference: If your marketing to-do list is starting to feel like a second full-time job, it's time to call in the experts at Taste the Local Difference (TLD). With over 20 years of experience, TLD is the go-to marketing agency for purpose-driven farmers and local food entrepreneurs. Their sole focus is helping businesses like yours succeed—from creating marketing plans that reach your ideal customers, to designing eye-catching labels and packaging, to building beautiful, search-optimized websites. No wonder most of their clients see an average 200% return on their investment within the first year! And here's a special offer just for My Digital Farmer listeners: visit LocalFoodMarketing.com/podcast, fill out a no-obligation marketing inquiry form, and mention My Digital Farmer to get 10% off any marketing service (up to $300). Farm Marketing School: Marketing doesn't have to feel overwhelming! Farm Marketing School is my step-by-step system for building a profitable farm marketing plan. Inside, you'll get access to bite-sized marketing projects like:
What if your next high-converting Facebook ad wasn't something you had to invent from scratch—but was already hiding in plain sight on your farm's social feed? In this episode, I share how I stumbled onto a wildly successful Facebook ad that grew my email list by over 500 people in just a few weeks—at an incredible cost of 60 cents per lead! You'll learn the story behind this happy accident, and how you can use the same strategy to build your list without reinventing the wheel. Podcast Sponsors: Local Line: Local Line is my preferred e-commerce platform for farmers. Are you looking for a new solution for your farm? I can't recommend it enough. Easy-to-use inventory management, great customer service, continuous improvement, and a culture dedicated to equipping farmers with marketing expertise. Local Line is offering a free premium feature for free for one year on top of your paid subscription. Claim your discount by signing up for a Local Line account today and using the coupon code: MDF2025. Head to my special affiliate link to get started: www.mydigitalfarmer.com/localline Taste the Local Difference: If your marketing to-do list is starting to feel like a second full-time job, it's time to call in the experts at Taste the Local Difference (TLD). With over 20 years of experience, TLD is the go-to marketing agency for purpose-driven farmers and local food entrepreneurs. Their sole focus is helping businesses like yours succeed—from creating marketing plans that reach your ideal customers, to designing eye-catching labels and packaging, to building beautiful, search-optimized websites. No wonder most of their clients see an average 200% return on their investment within the first year! And here's a special offer just for My Digital Farmer listeners: visit LocalFoodMarketing.com/podcast, fill out a no-obligation marketing inquiry form, and mention My Digital Farmer to get 10% off any marketing service (up to $300). Farm Marketing School: Marketing doesn't have to feel overwhelming! Farm Marketing School is my step-by-step system for building a profitable farm marketing plan. Inside, you'll get access to bite-sized marketing projects like:
What if there was a way to instantly get in front of new customers who are already primed to trust you? In today's episode, we're digging into the power of collaborations—one of the smartest and most underused marketing strategies for farmers. You'll hear real-life examples of creative partnerships that drive sales, grow your audience, and build deeper community connections—without spending a ton of money. What You'll Learn What a collaboration looks like in farm marketing (with tons of inspiring examples—from mocktail nights to pop-up dinners to recipe card partnerships). How to “borrow the trust” of another brand's audience (and why that matters!). Simple, low-lift collaboration ideas you can try this season—online and in person. How to plan, pitch, and execute a collaboration that actually helps both partners succeed. The key mistakes to avoid when collaborating (so you don't waste time or burn bridges). Smart ways to turn a one-time collab into a recurring campaign. Today's Podcast Guest: Erika Tebbens, Taste the Local Difference Erika Tebbens is the Director of Impact at Taste the Local Difference and a marketing expert with twenty years experience running businesses of all kinds, including farming and beekeeping. TLD is a woman-owned and woman-led marketing agency for purpose-driven food and farm businesses. Before joining TLD, Erika spent a decade working with entrepreneurs on their sales and growth strategy as a highly-respected business consultant for entrepreneurs.
pWotD Episode 2992: .xxx Welcome to popular Wiki of the Day, spotlighting Wikipedia's most visited pages, giving you a peek into what the world is curious about today.With 365,142 views on Friday, 11 July 2025 our article of the day is .xxx..xxx (pronounced "dot triple-ecks" or "dot ecks ecks ecks") is a sponsored top-level domain (sTLD) intended as a voluntary option for pornographic sites on the Internet. The sponsoring organization is the International Foundation for Online Responsibility (IFFOR). The registry is operated by ICM Registry LLC. The ICANN Board voted to approve the sTLD on 18 March 2011. It went into operation on 15 April 2011.The TLD entered its sunrise period on 7 September 2011 at 16:00 UTC; the sunrise period ended 28 October 2011. Landrush period lasted from 8 November through 25 November, and general availability commenced on 6 December 2011.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:47 UTC on Saturday, 12 July 2025.For the full current version of the article, see .xxx on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm neural Salli.
In this episode, DomainTools' Daniel Schwalbe is joined by Renee Burton (Infoblox), Raymond Dijkxhoorn (Surbl), and Peter Lowe (FIRST.org) to unpack the inaugural DomainTools Intelligence Report and what it reveals about DNS-based threats in 2024. The panel digs into evolving detection challenges, the pitfalls of domain scoring, the growing complexity of threat actor behavior, and why industry collaboration continues to lag. They explore topics like aging domains, TLD abuse, data sharing barriers, and the creative lengths bad actors go to avoid detection. Whether you're building threat intel tools or blocking domains at the edge, this conversation is a must-listen for anyone in DNS-based security.
O Podcast Canaltech de hoje destrincha o maior golpe via Pix já registrado no país e que movimentou quase R$ 1 bilhão. A entrevista com Rafael Dantas, especialista em cibersegurança e executivo da TLD, explica como os criminosos agiram, quais vulnerabilidades foram exploradas e por que a Inteligência Artificial pode ter ajudado os hackers nesse crime histórico. A conversa também aborda os riscos para o sistema financeiro, o papel dos terceiros nas cadeias de segurança e o que muda daqui para frente com a prisão de um dos suspeitos. Você também vai conferir: funcionário da C&M Software revela como entregou acesso a hackers, Nvidia pode se tornar a empresa mais valiosa do mundo, Meta testa IA que inicia conversas no WhatsApp, Samsung vaza por engano os novos Galaxy dobráveis, Mooven abre 30 vagas em tech com foco em IA. Este Podcast foi roteirizado e apresentado por Fernanda Santos e contou com reportagens de Marcelo Fischer, Emanuele Almeida e Bruno Bertonzin. A trilha sonora é de Guilherme Zomer, a edição de Jully Cruz e a arte da capa é de Erick Teixeira. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Keyword: Opportunities. I discuss the importance of personal branding, starting with its six components. I emphasize why having a personal brand is crucial even for those in stable jobs or non-entrepreneurial roles. Build trust, create opportunities, and stay top-of-mind. Nuances of maintaining personal brand visuals e.g. headshots.ChaptersPart 1(0:20) 1- Identity and values(0:32) 2 - Expertise and skills(0:45) 3- Reputation and trust. Related: You Need All Three: Ethos, Pathos, and Logos in Marketing(1:13) 4- Communication style(1:22) 5- Network and influence(1:30) 6- Visual presentation(1:41) Why everyone needs to invest in personal brand(4:40) Personal brand allows access to more opportunities(4:46) Let people leave(5:10) Bet on the jockey not the horse(5:54) Story: Gaby Migoya's golfwear startup, Foreplay Golf(7:26) Human Design strategy: wait for the invitation (Projector)(8:05) When it's time to update your LinkedIn profile picPart 2: Your headshot, LinkedIn, + website is a must(8:40) Announce a new headshot?(9:36) Napoleon theatre quote - Robert Greene(12:00) Your likeness or testimonial is not free(12:39) Recap + takeaways(13:09) Bonus tip: your website(13:38) TLD or dot com: replyall.limo (Reply All Podcast)(14:00) Personal brand SEO tip for photos - Google ImageRelated links:Ethos, Pathos, and Logos in MarketingLet people leave (unsubscribe is good)My tools:Record on RiversideRecord/edit with AI: DescriptShop my gearHire me:SpeakingAdvisory CallsConnect:This podcast | My website | Beetle Moment Marketing | LinkedIn | X | Insta | TikTok | YouTube | Email Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
What to expect in the next round of new top level domain expansion. It's finally happening. ICANN has published its Draft Applicant Guidebook for the next round of new top level domain expansion. Other than adding some deadlines, it's likely to be more or less the final rulebook when applications open starting this time next […] Post link: The new new TLD opportunity – DNW Podcast #538 © DomainNameWire.com 2025. This is copyrighted content. Domain Name Wire full-text RSS feeds are made available for personal use only, and may not be published on any site without permission. If you see this message on a website, contact editor (at) domainnamewire.com. Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.
Ben Smith is the co-founder of HipLok. Ben joins Olly & Davi in studio for a deep-dive into his journey from working at Troy Lee Designs in California to launching one of the most innovative bike security brands in the world. During the episode Ben opens up about how the idea for HipLok was born, the early struggles of building a brand from scratch, the reality of product development and manufacturing, and how global trade issues like tariffs and certification standards are affecting the industry. Ben also shares what it was like designing gear during the golden era of MTB at TLD, why bike theft is on the rise, and how HipLok's anti-angle grinder tech is pushing the boundaries of what's possible and much more... Use code THERIDECOMPANION20 at hiplok.com/the-ride-companion for 20% off! BIG thanks to this episode's sponsors: - Get 30 days of free cover on us when you sign-up to Laka with code RIDECOMPANION30 at https://my.laka.co/the-ride-companion. T&Cs Apply. - Melon's Kingpin, Alleycat and Alleycat S riding glasses are now available with Vantage photochromic lenses. Use code THERIDECOMPANION at melonoptics.com to get a FREE lens cleaning kit + a low light lens with your order! (trail enhancing tints) - Health is wealth folks so why not get optimised, cover your nutritional bases and probably ride better with AG1. Get a FREE 1-year supply of Vitamin D + 5 FREE travel packs at https://drinkag1.com/RIDECOMPANION Support our long term partners: - Marin Bikes: marinbikes.com/gb - Focus Bikes: focus-bikes.com - HUEL: Get 15% OFF with code 'RIDE' at huel.com/ - Hiplok: https://hiplok.com/the-ride-companion - Nissan Vans: nissan.co.uk/vehicles/new-vehicles/primastar.html - Play Fantasy Downhill at The Race Companion: theracecompanion.com instagram.com/theracecompanion - Get 10% off Troy Lee Designs with code 'theridecompanion' at saddleback.avln.me/c/OzduCWvjtcOr - Athletic Greens: Get a FREE 1-year supply of Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs at athleticgreens.com/RIDECOMPANION - Compex: Get 20% off with code ‘THERIDECOMPANION' at compex.com/uk/ - Worx: Get 15% off with code ‘THERIDECOMPANION' at worx.com - LAKA: Get 30 days of FREE insurance with code ‘RIDECOMPANION30' at laka.co - HKT Products: Use code ‘PODCAST' for 10% off the entire site. Follow Olly Wilkins Instagram @odub_23 YouTube @owilkins23 The Ride Companion Instagram @theridecompanion YouTube @TheRideCompanion YouTube clips and BTS channel @moreridecompanion Get official Ride Companion merch, find old episodes and more theridecompanion.co.uk
Catherine Castaldo, Christian Leuthner and Asélle Ibraimova dive into the implications of the new Network and Information Security (NIS2) Directive, exploring its impact on cybersecurity compliance across the EU. They break down key changes, including expanded sector coverage, stricter reporting obligations and tougher penalties for noncompliance. Exploring how businesses can prepare for the evolving regulatory landscape, they share insights on risk management, incident response and best practices. ----more---- Transcript: Intro: Hello, and welcome to Tech Law Talks, a podcast brought to you by Reed Smith's Emerging Technologies Group. In each episode of this podcast, we will discuss cutting-edge issues on technology, data, and the law. We will provide practical observations on a wide variety of technology and data topics to give you quick and actionable tips to address the issues you are dealing with every day. Catherine: Hi, and welcome to Tech Law Talks. My name is Catherine Castaldo, and I am a partner in the New York office in the Emerging Technologies Group, focusing on cybersecurity and privacy. And we have some big news with directives coming out of the EU for that very thing. So I'll turn it to Christian, who can introduce himself. Christian: Thanks, Catherine. So my name is Christian Leuthner. I'm a partner at the Reed Smith Frankfurt office, also in the Emerging Technologies Group, focusing on IT and data. And we have a third attorney on this podcast, our colleague, Asélle. Asélle: Thank you, Christian. Very pleased to join this podcast. I am counsel based in Reed Smith's London office, and I also am part of emerging technologies group and work on data protection, cybersecurity, and technology issues. Catherine: Great. As we previewed a moment ago, on October 17th, 2024, there was a deadline for the transposition of a new directive, commonly referred to as NIS2. And for those of our listeners who might be less familiar, would you tell us what NIS2 stands for and who is subject to it? Christian: Yeah, sure. So NIS2 stands for the Directive on Security of Network and Information Systems. And it is the second iteration of the EU's legal framework for enhancing the cybersecurity of critical infrastructures and digital services, it will replace what replaces the previous directive, which obviously is called NIS1, which was adopted in 2016, but had some limitations and gaps. So NIS2 applies to a wider range of entities that provide essential or important services to the society and the economy, such as energy, transport, health, banking, digital infrastructure, cloud computing, online marketplaces, and many, many more. It also covers public administrations and operators of electoral systems. Basically, anyone who relies on network and information systems to deliver their services and whose disruptions or compromise could have significant impacts on the public interest, security or rights of EU citizens and businesses will be in scope of NIS2. As you already said, Catherine, NIS2 had to be transposed into national member state law. So it's a directive, not a regulation, contrary to DORA, which we discussed the last time in our podcast. It had to be implemented into national law by October 17th, 2024. But most of the member states did not. So the EU Commission has now started investigations regarding the violations of the treaty of the functioning of the European Union against, I think, 23 member states as they have not yet implemented NIS2 into national law. Catherine: That's really comprehensive. Do you have any idea what the timeline is for the implementation? Christian: It depends on the state. So there are some states that have already comprehensive drafts. And those just need to go through the legislative process. In Germany, for example, we had a draft, but we have elections in a few weeks. And the current government just stated that they will not implement the law before that. And so after the election, the implementation law will be probably discussed again, redrafted. And so it'll take some time. It might be in the third quarter of this year. Catherine: Very interesting. We have a similar process. Sometimes it happens in the States where things get delayed. Well, what are some of the key components? Asélle: So, NIS2 focuses on cybersecurity measures, and we need to differentiate it from the usual cybersecurity measures that any organization thinks about in the usual way where they protect their data, their systems against cyber attacks or incidents. So the purpose of this legislation is to make sure there is no disruption to the economy or to others. And in that sense, the similar kind of notions apply. Organizations need to focus on ensuring availability, authenticity, integrity, confidentiality of data and protect their data and systems against all hazards. These notions are familiar to us also from the GDPR kind of framework. So there are 10 cybersecurity risk management measures that NIS2 talks about, and this is policies on risk analysis and information system security, incident handling, business continuity and crisis management, supply chain security. Security in systems acquisition, development, and maintenance, policies to assess the effectiveness of measures, basic cyber hygiene practices, and training, cryptography and encryption, human resources security training, use of multi-factor authentication. So these are familiar notions also. And it seems the general requirements are something that organizations will be familiar with. However, the European Commission in its NIS Investments Report of November 2023 has done research, a survey, and actually found that organizations that are subject to NIS2 didn't really even take these basic measures. Only 22% of those surveyed had third-party risk management in place, and only 48% of organizations had top management involved in approving cybersecurity risk policies and any type of training. And this reduces the general commitment of organizations to cybersecurity. So there are clearly gaps, and NAS2 is trying to focus on improving that. There are other couple of things that I wanted to mention that are different from NIS1 and are important. So as Christian said, essential entities are different, have different regime, compliance regime applied to them compared with important entities. Essential entities need to systematically document their compliance and be prepared for regular monitoring by regulators, including regular inspections by competent authorities, whereas important entities only are obliged to kind of be in touch and communicate with competent authorities in case of security incidents. And there is an important clarification in terms of the supply chain, these are the questions we receive from our clients. And the question is, does the supply chain mean anyone that provides services or products? And from our reading of the legislation, supply chain only relates to ICT products and ICT services. Of course, there is a proportionality principle employed in this legislation, as with usually most of the European legislation, and there is a size threshold. The legislation only applies to those organizations who exceed the medium threshold. And two more topics, and I'm sorry that I'm kind of taking over the conversation here, but I thought the self-identification point was important because in the view of the European Commission, the original NIS1 didn't cover the organizations it intended to cover and so in the European Commission's view, the requirements are so clear in terms of which entities it applies to, that organizations should be able to assess it and register, identify themselves with the relevant authorities by April this year. And the last point, digital infrastructure organizations, their nature is specifically kind of taken into consideration, their cross-border nature. And if they provide services in several member states, there is a mechanism for them to register with the competent authority where their main establishment is based, similar to the notion under the GDPR. Catherine: It sounds like, though, there's enough information in the directive itself without waiting for the member state implementation that companies who are subject to this rule could be well on their way to being compliant by just following those principles. Christian: That's correct. So even if the implementation international law is currently not happening. All of the member states, companies can already work to comply with NIS2. So once the law is implemented, they don't have to start from zero. NIS2 sets out the requirements that important and essential entities under NIS2 have to comply with. For example have a proper information security management system have supply chain management train their employees and so they can already work to implement NIS2 and the the directive itself also has an access that sets out the sectors and potential entities that might be in scope of NIS2 And the member states cannot really vary from those annexes. So if you are already in scope of NIS2 under the information that is in the directive itself, you can be sure that you would probably also have to comply with your national rules. There might be some gray areas where it's not fully clear if someone is in scope of NIS2 and those entities might want to wait for the national implementation. And it also can happen that the national implementation goes beyond the directive and covers sectors or entities that might not be in scope under the directive itself. And then of course they will have to work to implement the requirements then. I think a good starting point anyways is the existing security program that companies already hopefully have in place so if they for example have an ISO 27001 framework implemented it might be good to start but with a mapping exercise what NIS2 might require in addition to the ISO 27001. And then look if this should be implemented now or companies can wait for the national implementation. But it's recommended not to wait for the national implementation and don't do anything until then. Asélle: I agree with that, Christian. And I would like to point out that, in fact, digital infrastructure entities have very detailed requirements for compliance because there was an implementing regulation that basically specifies the cybersecurity requirements under NIS2. And just to clarify, perhaps digital infrastructure entities that I'm referring to are DNS service providers, TLD name, registries, cloud service providers, data centers. Content delivery network providers, managed service providers, managed security service providers, online marketplaces, online search engines, social networking services, and trust service providers. So the implementing regulation is in fact binding and directly applicable in all member states. And the regulation is quite detailed and has specific requirements in relation to each cybersecurity measure. Importantly, it has detailed thresholds on when incidents should be reported, and we need to take into consideration that not any incident is reportable, only those incidents that are capable of causing significant disruption to the service or significant impact on the provision of the services. So please take that into consideration. And NISA also published implementing guidance, and it's 150 pages, just explaining what the implementing regulation means. And it's still a draft. The consultation ended on the 9th of January 2025, so there'll be further guidance on that. Catherine: Well, we can look forward to that. But I guess the next question would be, what are some of the risks for noncompliance? Christian: Noncompliance with NIS2 can have serious consequences for the entity's concern, both legal and non-legal. On the legal side, NIS2 empowers the national authorities to impose sanctions and penalties, breaches. They can range from warnings and orders to fines and injunctions. Depending on the severity and duration of the infringement. The sanctions can be up to 2% of the annual turnover or 10 million euros, whatever is higher for the essential entities, and up to 1.4% of the annual turnover or 7 million euros, whichever is higher for important entities. NIS2 also allows the national authorities to take corrective or preventive measures. They can suspend or restrict the provision of the services and take the or order the entities to take remedial actions or improve the security posture. So even if they have implemented security measures and the authorities understand or determine that they are not sufficient in light of the risk applicable to the entity, they can require them to implement other measures to increase the security. On the non-legal side, it's very similar to what we discussed in our DORA podcast. There can be civil liability if there is an incident, if a damage occurs. And of course, the reputational damage and loss of trust and confidence can be really, really severe for the entities if they have an incident. And it's huge because they did not comply with the NIS2 requirements. Asélle: I wanted to add that, unfortunately, with this piece of legislation, member states can add to the list of entities to which this legislation will apply. They can apply higher cybersecurity requirements, and because of the new criteria and new entities being added, it now applies to twice as many sectors as before. So quite a few organizations will need to review their policies, take cybersecurity measures. And it's helpful, as Christian mentioned, that, you know, NIS already mapped the cybersecurity measures against existing standards. It's on its website. I think it's super helpful. And it's likely that, the cybersecurity measures and the general risk assessment will be done by cybersecurity teams and risk compliance teams within organizations. However, legal will also need to be involved. And often policies, once drafted, they're reviewed by in-house legal teams. So it's essential that they all work together. It's also important to mention that there will be an impact on the due diligence and contracts with ICT product providers and ICT service providers. So the due diligence processes will need to be reviewed and enhanced and contracts drafted to ensure they will allow the organization, the recipients of the services to be compliant with NIS2. And maybe last point, just to cover off the UK, what's happening in the UK for those who also have operations there. It is clear now that the government will implement a version of NIS2. It's going to follow the European Union in its steps. And we recently were informed of a government page on the new cybersecurity and resilience bill. It's clear that it's going to be covering five sectors, transport, energy, drinking, water, health, and digital infrastructure. And digital services, very similar to NIS2, such as online marketplaces, online search engines, and cloud computing services. We are expecting the bill to be introduced to Parliament this year. Catherine: Wow, fantastic news. So it should be a busy cybersecurity season. If any of our listeners think that they need help and think that they may be subject to these rules, I'm sure my colleagues, Asélle and Christian, would be happy to help with the legal governance side of this cybersecurity compliance effort. So thank you very much for sharing all this information, and we'll talk soon. Outro: Tech Law Talks is a Reed Smith production. Our producers are Ali McCardell and Shannon Ryan. For more information about Reed Smith's emerging technologies practice, please email techlawtalks@reedsmith.com. You can find our podcasts on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, reedsmith.com and our social media accounts. Disclaimer: This podcast is provided for educational purposes. It does not constitute legal advice and is not intended to establish an attorney-client relationship, nor is it intended to suggest or establish standards of care applicable to particular lawyers in any given situation. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Any views, opinions, or comments made by any external guest speaker are not to be attributed to Reed Smith LLP or its individual lawyers. All rights reserved. Transcript is auto-generated.
In this episode of Garage Cast, we catch up with Terry Lynn from Troy Lee Designs at the A.I.M. Expo in Las Vegas. From wrenching on aircraft engines in the Marine Corps to shaping the future of motorcycle racing and gear, Terry's story is pure adrenaline. We talk about her career shift from the military to the motorcycle industry, her time at Icon, Triumph, and KTM, and what it was like navigating the power sports world during COVID. She also gives us an inside look at TLD's bold vision—expanding globally, innovating gear, and partnering with Ducati for the Supercross season.
Paul Frazee is the CTO of Bluesky. He previously worked on the Beaker browser and the peer-to-peer social media protocol Secure Scuttlebutt. Paul discusses how Bluesky and ATProto got started, scaling up a social media site, what makes ATProto decentralized, lessons ATProto learned from previous peer-to-peer projects, and the challenges of content moderation. Episode transcript available here. My Bluesky profile. -- Related Links Bluesky ATProtocol ATProto for distributed systems engineers Bluesky and the AT Protocol: Usable Decentralized Social Media Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) ActivityPub Webfinger Beaker web browser Secure Scuttlebutt -- Transcript You can help correct transcripts on GitHub. [00:00:00] Jeremy: Today I am talking to Paul Frazee. He's the current CTO of bluesky, and he previously worked on other decentralized applications like Beaker and Secure Scuttlebutt. [00:00:15] Paul: Thanks for having me. What's bluesky [00:00:16] Jeremy: For people who aren't familiar with bluesky, what is it? [00:00:20] Paul: So bluesky is an open social network, simplest way to put it, designed in particular for high scale. That's kind of one of the big requirements that we had when we were moving into it. and it is really geared towards making sure that the operation of the social network is open amongst multiple different organizations. [00:00:44] So we're one of the operators, but other folks can come in, spin up the software, all the open source software, and essentially have a full node with a full copy of the network active users and have their users join into our network. And they all work functionally as one shared application. [00:01:03] Jeremy: So it, it sounds like it's similar to Twitter but instead of there being one Twitter, there could be any number and there is part of the underlying protocol that allows them to all connect to one another and act as one system. [00:01:21] Paul: That's exactly right. And there's a metaphor we use a lot, which is comparing to the web and search engines, which actually kind of matches really well. Like when you use Bing or Google, you're searching the same web. So on the AT protocol on bluesky, you use bluesky, you use some alternative client or application, all the same, what we're we call it, the atmosphere, all one shared network, [00:01:41] Jeremy: And more than just the, the client. 'cause I think sometimes when people think of a client, they'll think of, I use a web browser. I could use Chrome or Firefox, but ultimately I'm connecting to the same thing. But it's not just people running alternate clients, right? [00:01:57] Paul: Their own full backend to it. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. The anchoring point on that being the fire hose of data that runs the entire thing is open as well. And so you start up your own application, you spin up a service that just pipes into that fire hose and taps into all the activity. History of AT Protocol [00:02:18] Jeremy: Talking about this underlying protocol maybe we could start where this all began so people get some context for where this all came from. [00:02:28] Paul: For sure. All right, so let's wind the clock back here in my brain. We started out 2022, right at the beginning of the year. We were formed as a, essentially a consulting company outside of Twitter with a contract with Twitter. And, uh, our goal was to build a protocol that could run, uh, Twitter, much like the way that we just described, which set us up with a couple of pretty specific requirements. [00:02:55] For one, we had to make sure that it could scale. And so that ended up being a really important first requirement. and we wanted to make sure that there was a strong kind of guarantees that the network doesn't ever get captured by any one operator. The idea was that Twitter would become the first, uh, adopter of the technology. [00:03:19] Other applications, other services would begin to take advantage of it and users would be able to smoothly migrate their accounts in between one or the other at any time. Um, and it's really, really anchored in a particular goal of just deconstructing monopolies. Getting rid of those moats that make it so that there's a kind of a lack of competition, uh, between these things. [00:03:44] And making sure that, if there was some kind of reason that you decided you're just not happy with what direction this service has been going, you move over to another one. You're still in touch with all the folks you were in touch with before. You don't lose your data. You don't lose your, your your follows. Those were the kind of initial requirements that we set out with. The team by and large came from, the decentralized web, movement, which is actually a pretty, large community that's been around since, I wanna say around 2012 is when we first kind of started to form. It got really made more specifically into a community somewhere around 2015 or 16, I wanna say. [00:04:23] When the internet archives started to host conferences for us. And so that gave us kind of a meeting point where all started to meet up there's kind of three schools of thought within that movement. There was the blockchain community, the, federation community, and the peer-to-peer community. [00:04:43] And so blockchain, you don't need to explain that one. You got Federation, which was largely ActivityPub Mastodon. And then peer-to-peer was IPFS, DAT protocol, um, secure scuttlebutt. But, those kinds of BitTorrent style of technologies really they were all kind of inspired by that. [00:05:02] So these three different kind of sub communities we're all working, independently on different ways to attack how to make these open applications. How do you get something that's a high scale web application without one corporation being the only operator? When this team came together in 2022, we largely sourced from the peer-to-peer group of the decentralized community. Scaling limitations of peer-to-peer [00:05:30] Paul: Personally, I've been working in the space and on those kinds of technologies for about 10 years at that stage. And, the other folks that were in there, you know, 5-10 each respectively. So we all had a fair amount of time working on that. And we had really kind of hit some of the limitations of doing things entirely using client devices. We were running into challenges about reliability of connections. Punching holes to the individual device is very hard. Synchronizing keys between the devices is very hard. Maintaining strong availability of the data because people's devices are going off and on, things like that. Even when you're using the kind of BitTorrent style of shared distribution, that becomes a challenge. [00:06:15] But probably the worst challenge was quite simply scale. You need to be able to create aggregations of a lot of behavior even when you're trying to model your application as largely peer wise interactions like messaging. You might need an aggregation of accounts that even exist, how do you do notifications reliably? [00:06:37] Things like that. Really challenging. And what I was starting to say to myself by the end of that kind of pure peer-to-peer stent was that it can't be rocket science to do a comment section. You know, like at some point you just ask yourself like, how, how hard are we willing to work to, to make these ideas work? [00:06:56] But, there were some pretty good pieces of tech that did come out of the peer-to-peer world. A lot of it had to do with what I might call a cryptographic structure. things like Merkel trees and advances within Merkel Trees. Ways to take data sets and reduce them down to hashes so that you can then create nice signatures and have signed data sets at rest at larger scales. [00:07:22] And so our basic thought was, well, all right, we got some pretty good tech out of this, but let's drop that requirement that it all run off of devices. And let's get some servers in there. And instead think of the entire network as a peer-to-peer mesh of servers. That's gonna solve your scale problem. [00:07:38] 'cause you can throw big databases at it. It's gonna solve your availability problems, it's gonna solve your device sync problems. But you get a lot of the same properties of being able to move data sets between services. Much like you could move them between devices in the peer-to-peer network without losing their identifiers because you're doing this in direction of, cryptographic identifiers to the current host. [00:08:02] That's what peer-to-peer is always doing. You're taking like a public key or hash and then you're asking the network, Hey, who has this? Well, if you just move that into the server, you get the same thing, that dynamic resolution of who's your active host. So you're getting that portability that we wanted real bad. [00:08:17] And then you're also getting that kind of in meshing of the different services where each of them is producing these data sets that they can sink from each other. So take peer-to-peer and apply it to the server stack. And that was our kind of initial thought of like, Hey, you know what? This might work. [00:08:31] This might solve the problems that we have. And a lot of the design fell out from that basic mentality. Crytographic identifiers and domain names [00:08:37] Jeremy: When you talk about these cryptographic identifiers, is the idea that anybody could have data about a person, like a message or a comment, and that could be hosted different places, but you would still know which person that originally came from. Is that, is that the goal there? [00:08:57] Paul: That's exactly it. Yeah. Yeah. You wanna create identification that supersedes servers, right? So when you think about like, if I'm using Twitter and I wanna know what your posts are, I go to twitter.com/jeremy, right? I'm asking Twitter and your ID is consequently always bound to Twitter. You're always kind of a second class identifier. [00:09:21] We wanted to boost up the user identifier to be kind of a thing freestanding on its own. I wanna just know what Jeremy's posts are. And then once you get into the technical system it'll be designed to figure out, okay, who knows that, who can answer that for you? And we use cryptographic identifiers internally. [00:09:41] So like all the data sets use these kind of long URLs to identify things. But in the application, the user facing part, we used domain names for people. Which I think gives the picture of how this all operates. It really moves the user accounts up into a free standing first class identifier within the system. [00:10:04] And then consequently, any application, whatever application you're using, it's really about whatever data is getting put into your account. And then that just exchanges between any application that anybody else is using. [00:10:14] Jeremy: So in this case, it sounds like the identifier is some long string that, I'm not sure if it's necessarily human readable or not. You're shaking your head no. [00:10:25] Paul: No. [00:10:26] Jeremy: But if you have that string, you know it's for a specific person. And since it's not really human readable, what you do is you put a layer on top of it which in this case is a domain that somebody can use to look up and find the identifier. [00:10:45] Paul: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we just use DNS. Put a TXT record in there, map into that long string, or you could do a .well-known file on a web server if that's more convenient for you. And then the ID that's behind that, the non-human readable one, those are called DIDs which is actually a W3C spec. Those then map to a kind of a certificate. What you call a DID document that kind of confirms the binding by declaring what that domain name should be. So you get this bi-directional binding. And then that certificate also includes signing keys and active servers. So you pull down that certificate and that's how the discovery of the active server happens is through the DID system. What's stored on a PDS [00:11:29] Jeremy: So when you refer to an active server what is that server and what is that server storing? [00:11:35] Paul: It's kinda like a web server, but instead of hosting HTML, it's hosting a bunch of JSON records. Every user has their own document store of JSON documents. It's bucketed into collections. Whenever you're looking up somebody on the network you're gonna get access to that repository of data, jump into a collection. [00:11:58] This collection is their post collection. Get the rkey (Record Key), and then you're pulling out JSON at the end of it, which is just a structured piece of stuff saying here's the CreatedAt, here's the text, here's the type, things like that. One way you could look at the whole system is it's a giant, giant database network. Servers can change, signing keys change, but not DID [00:12:18] Jeremy: So if someone's going to look up someone's identifier, let's say they have the user's domain they have to go to some source, right? To find the user's data. You've mentioned, I think before, the idea that this is decentralized and by default I would, I would picture some kind of centralized resource where I send somebody a domain and then they give me back the identifier and the links to the servers. [00:12:46] So, so how does that work in practice where it actually can be decentralized? [00:12:51] Paul: I mentioned that your DID that non-human readable identifier, and that has that certificate attached to it that lists servers and signing keys and things like that. [00:13:00] So you're just gonna look up inside that DID document what that server is your data repository host. And then you contact that guy and say, all right, I'm told you're hosting this thing. Here's the person I'm looking for, hand over the hand over the data. It's really, you know, pretty straightforward. [00:13:18] The way that gets decentralized is by then to the fact that I could swap out that active server that's in my certificate and probably wanna rotate the signing keys 'cause I've just changed the, you know. I don't want to keep using the same signing keys as I was using previously because I just changed the authority. [00:13:36] So that's the migration change, change the hosting server, change out the signing keys. Somebody that's looking for me now, they're gonna load up my document, my DID document. They're gonna say, okay, new server, new keys. Pull down the data. Looks good, right? Matches up with the DID doc. [00:13:50] So that's how you get that level of portability. But when those changes happen, the DID doesn't change, right? The DID document changes. So there's the level of indirection there and that's pretty important because if you don't have a persistent identifier whenever you're trying to change out servers, all those backlinks are gonna break. [00:14:09] That's the kind of stuff that stops you from being able to do clean migrations on things like web-based services. the only real option is to go out and ask everybody to update their data. And when you're talking about like interactions on the social network, like people replying to each other, there's no chance, right? [00:14:25] Every time somebody moves you're gonna go back and modify all those records. You don't even control all the records from the top down 'cause they're hosted all over the web. So it's just, you can't do it. Generally we call this account portability, that you're kinda like phone number portability that you can change your host, but, so that part's portable, but the ID stays the same. [00:14:45] And keeping that ID the same is the real key to making sure that this can happen without breaking the whole system. [00:14:52] Jeremy: And so it, it sounds like there's the decentralized id, then there's the decentralized ID document that's associated with that points you to where the actual location of your, your data, your posts, your pictures and whatnot. but then you also mentioned that they could change servers. [00:15:13] So let's say somebody changes where their data is, is stored, that would change the servers, I guess, in their document. But [00:15:23] then how do all of these systems. Know okay. I need to change all these references to your old server, to these new servers, [00:15:32] Paul: Yeah. Well, the good news is that you only have to, you, you got the public data set of all the user's activity, and then you have like internal caches of where the current server is. You just gotta update those internal caches when you're trying to contact their server. Um, so it's actually a pretty minimal thing to just like update like, oh, they moved, just start talking to update my, my table, my Redis, that's holding onto that kind of temporary information, put it on ttl, that sort of thing. Most communication won't be between servers, it will be from event streams [00:16:01] Paul: And, honestly, in practice, a fair amount of the system for scalability reasons doesn't necessarily work by servers directly contacting each other. It's actually a little bit more like how, I told you before, I'm gonna use this metaphor a lot, the search engines with the web, right? What we do is we actually end up crawling the repositories that are out in the world and funneling them into event streams like a Kafka. And that allows the entire system to act like a data processing pipeline where you're just tapping into these event streams and then pushing those logs into databases that produce these large scale aggregations. [00:16:47] So a lot of the application behavior ends up working off of these event logs. If I reply to somebody, for instance, I don't necessarily, it's not, my server has to like talk to your server and say, Hey, I'm replying to you. What I do is I just publish a reply in my repository that gets shot out into the event logs, and then these aggregators pick up that the reply got created and just update their database with it. [00:17:11] So it's not that our hosting servers are constantly having to send messages with each other, you actually use these aggregators to pull together the picture of what's happening on the network. [00:17:22] Jeremy: Okay, so like you were saying, it's an event stream model where everybody publishes the events the things that they're doing, whether that's making a new post, making a reply, that's all being posted to this event stream. And then everybody who provides, I'm not sure if instances is the right term, but an implementation of the atmosphere protocol (Authenticated Transfer protocol). [00:17:53] They are listening for all those changes and they don't necessarily have to know that you moved servers because they're just listening for the events and you still have the same identifier. [00:18:10] Paul: Generally speaking. Yeah. 'cause like if you're listening to one of these event streams what you end up looking for is just the signature on it and making sure that the signature matches up. Because you're not actually having to talk to their live server. You're just listening to this relay that's doing this aggregation for you. [00:18:27] But I think actually to kind of give a little more clarity to what you're talking about, it might be a good idea to refocus how we're talking about the system here. I mentioned before that our goal was to make a high scale system, right? We need to handle a lot of data. If you're thinking about this in the way that Mastodon does it, the ActivityPub model, that's actually gonna give you the wrong intuition. Designing the protocol to match distributed systems practices (Event sourcing / Stream processing) [00:18:45] Paul: 'cause we chose a dramatically different system. What we did instead was we picked up, essentially the same practices you're gonna use for a data center, a high scale application data center, and said, all right, how do you tend to build these sorts of things? Well, what you're gonna do is you're gonna have, multiple different services running different purposes. [00:19:04] It gets pretty close to a microservices approach. You're gonna have a set of databases, and then you're going to, generally speaking for high scale, you're gonna have some kind of a kafka, some kind of a event log that you are tossing changes about the state of these databases into. And then you have a bunch of secondary systems that are tapping into the event log and processing that into, the large scale, databases like your search index, your, nice postgres of user profiles. [00:19:35] And that makes sure that you can get each of these different systems to perform really well at their particular task, and then you can detach them in their design. for instance, your primary storage can be just a key value store that scales horizontally. And then on the event log, you, you're using a Kafka that's designed to handle. [00:19:58] Particular semantics of making sure that the messages don't get dropped, that they come through at a particular throughput. And then you're using, for us, we're using like ScyllaDB for the big scale indexes that scales horizontally really well. So it's just different kind of profiles for different pieces. [00:20:13] If you read Martin Kleppman's book, data Intensive applications I think it's called or yeah. A lot of it gets captured there. He talks a lot about this kind of thing and it's sometimes called a kappa architecture is one way this is described, event sourcing is a similar term for it as well. [00:20:30] Stream processing. That's pretty standard practices for how you would build a traditional high scale service. so if you take, take this, this kind of microservice architecture and essentially say, okay, now imagine that each of the services that are a part of your data center could be hosted by anybody, not just within our data center, but outside of our data center as well and should be able to all work together. [00:20:57] Basically how the AT Proto is designed. We were talking about the data repository hosts. Those are just the primary data stores that they hold onto the user keys and they hold onto those JSON records. And then we have another service category we call Relay that just crawls those data repositories and sucks that in that fire hose of data we were talking about that event log. App views pull data from relay and produces indexes and threads [00:21:21] Paul: And then we have what we call app views that sit there and tail the index and tail the log, excuse me, and produce indexes off of it, they're listening to those events and then like, making threads like okay, that guy posted, that guy replied, that guy replied. [00:21:37] That's a thread. They assemble it into that form. So when you're running an application, you're talking to the AppView to read the network, and you're talking to the hosts to write to the network, and each of these different pieces sync up together in this open mesh. So we really took a traditional sort of data center model and just turned it inside out where each piece is a part of the protocol and communicate it with each other and therefore anybody can join into that mesh. [00:22:07] Jeremy: And to just make sure I am tracking the data repository is the data about the user. So it has your decentralized identifier, it has your replies, your posts, And then you have a relay, which is, its responsibility, is to somehow find all of those data repositories and collect them as they happen so that it can publish them to some kind of event stream. [00:22:41] And then you have the AppView which it's receiving messages from the relay as they happen, and then it can have its own store and index that for search. It can collect them in a way so that it can present them onto a UI. That's sort of thing that's the user facing part I suppose. [00:23:00] Paul: Yeah, that's exactly it. And again, it's, it's actually quite similar to how the web works. If you combine together the relay and the app view, you got all these different, you know, the web works where you got all these different websites, they're hosting their stuff, and then the search engine is going around, aggregating all that data and turning it into a search experience. [00:23:19] Totally the same model. It's just being applied to, more varieties of data, like structured data, like posts and, and replies, follows, likes, all that kinda stuff. And then instead of producing a search application at the end. I mean, it does that too, but it also produces a, uh, you know, timelines and threads and, um, people's profiles and stuff like that. [00:23:41] So it's actually a pretty bog standard way of doing, that's one of the models that we've seen work for large scale decentralized systems. And so we're just transposing it onto something that kind of is more focused towards social applications [00:23:58] Jeremy: So I think I'm tracking that the data repository itself, since it has your decentralized identifier and because the data is cryptographically signed, you know, it's from a specific user. I think the part that I am still not quite sure about is the relays. I, I understand if you run all the data repositories, you know where they are, so you know how to collect the data from them. [00:24:22] But if someone's running another system outside of your organization, how do they find, your data repositories? Or do they have to connect to your relay? What's the intention for that? Data hosts request relays to pull their data [00:24:35] Paul: That logic runs, again, really similar to how search engines find out about websites. So there is actually a way for, one of these, data hosts to contact Relay and say, Hey, I exist. You know, go ahead and get my stuff. And then it'll be up to the relay to decide like if they want it or not. [00:24:52] Right now, generally we're just like, yeah, you know, we, we want it. But as you can imagine, as the thing matures and gets to higher scale, there might be some trust kind of things to worry about, you know? So that's kind of the naive operation that currently exists. But over time as the network gets bigger and bigger, it'll probably involve some more traditional kind of spiraling behaviors because as more relays come into the system, each of these hosts, they're not gonna know who to talk to. Relays can bootstrap who they know about by talking to other relays [00:25:22] Paul: You're trying to start a new relay. What they're gonna do is they're going to discover all of the different users that exist in the system by looking at what data they have to start with. Probably involve a little bit of a manual feeding in at first, whenever I'm starting up a relay, like, okay, there's bluesky's relay. [00:25:39] Lemme just pull what they know. And then I go from there. And then anytime you discover a new user you don't have, you're like, oh, I wanna look them up. Pull them into the relay too. Right. So there's a, pretty straightforward, discovery process that you'll just have to bake into a relay to, to make sure you're calling as much the network as possible. ActivityPub federation vs AT Proto [00:25:57] Jeremy: And so I don't think we've defined the term federation, but maybe you could explain what that is and if that is what this is. [00:26:07] Paul: We are so unsure. [00:26:10] Jeremy: Okay. [00:26:11] Paul: Yeah. This has jammed is up pretty bad. Um, because I think everybody can, everybody pretty strongly agrees that ActivityPub is federation, right? and ActivityPub kind of models itself pretty similarly to email in a way, like the metaphors they use is that there's inboxes and outboxes and, and every ActivityPub server they're standing up the full vertical stack. [00:26:37] They set up, the primary hosting, the views of the data that's happening there. the interface for the application, all of it, pretty traditional, like close service, but then they're kind of using the perimeter. they're making that permeable by sending, exchanging, essentially mailing records to each other, right? [00:26:54] That's their kind of logic of how that works. And that's pretty much in line with, I think, what most people think of with Federation. Whereas what we're doing isn't like that we've cut, instead of having a bunch of vertical stacks communicating horizontally with each other, we kind of sliced in the other direction. [00:27:09] We sliced horizontally into, this microservices mesh and have all the different, like a total mix and match of different microservices between different operators. Is that federation? I don't know. Right. we tried to invent a term, didn't really work, you know, At the moment, we just kind of don't worry about it that much, see what happens, see what the world sort of has to say to us about it. [00:27:36] and beyond that, I don't know. [00:27:42] Jeremy: I think people probably are thinking of something like, say, a Mastodon instance when you're, when you're talking about everything being included, The webpage where you view the posts, the Postgres database that's keeping the messages. [00:28:00] And that same instance it's responsible for basically everything. [00:28:06] Paul: mm-Hmm [00:28:06] Jeremy: And I believe what you're saying is that the difference with, the authenticated transfer protocol, is that the [00:28:15] Paul: AT Protocol, Yep. [00:28:17] Jeremy: And the difference there is that you've, at the protocol level, you've split it up into the data itself, which can be validated completely separately from other parts of the system. [00:28:31] You could have the JSON files on your hard drive and somebody else can have that same JSON file and they would know that who the user is and that these are real things that user posted. That's like a separate part. And then the relay component that looks for all these different repositories that has people's data, that can also be its own independent thing where its job is just to output events. [00:29:04] And that can exist just by itself. It doesn't need the application part, the, the user facing part, it can just be this event stream on itself. and that's the part where it sounds like you can make decisions on who to, um, collect data from. I guess you have to agree that somebody can connect to you and get the users from your data repositories. [00:29:32] And likewise, other people that run relays, they also have to agree to let you pull the users from theirs. [00:29:38] Paul: Yeah, that's right. Yeah. [00:29:41] Jeremy: And so I think the Mastodon example makes sense. And, but I wonder if the underlying ActivityPub protocol forces you to use it in that way, in like a whole full application that talks to another full application. [00:29:55] Or is it more like that's just how people tend to use it and it's not necessarily a characteristic of the protocol. [00:30:02] Paul: Yeah, that's a good question actually. so, you know, generally what I would say is pretty core to the protocol is the expectations about how the services interact with each other. So the mailbox metaphor that's used in ActivityPub, that design, if I reply to you, I'll update my, local database with what I did, and then I'll send a message over to your server saying, Hey, by the way, add this reply. [00:30:34] I did this. And that's how they find out about things. That's how they find out about activity outside of their network. that's the part that as long as you're doing ActivityPub, I suspect you're gonna see reliably happening. That's that, I can say for sure that's a pretty tight requirement. [00:30:50] That's ActivityPub. If you wanted to split it up the way we're talking about, you could, I don't know, I don't know if you necessarily would want to. Because I don't know. That's actually, I think I'd have to dig into their stack a little bit more to see how meaningful that would be. I do know that there's some talk of introducing a similar kind of an aggregation method into the ActivityPub world which I believe they're also calling a relay and to make things even more complicated. [00:31:23] And NOSTR has a concept of a relay. So these are three different protocols that are using this term. I think you could do essentially what a search engine does on any of these things. You could go crawling around for the data, pull them into a fire hose, and then, tap into that aggregation to produce, bigger views of the network. [00:31:41] So that principle can certainly apply anywhere. AT Protocol, I think it's a little bit, we, we focused in so hard from that on that from the get go, we focus really hard on making sure that this, the data is, signed at rest. That's why it's called the authenticated transfer protocol. And that's a nice advantage to have when you're running a relay like this because it means that you don't have to trust the relay. [00:32:08] Like generally speaking, when I look at results from Google, you know, I'm trusting pretty well that they're accurately reflecting what's on the website, which is fine. You know, there's, that's not actually a huge risk or anything. But whenever you're trying to build entire applications and you're using somebody else's relay, you could really run into things where they say like, oh, you know what Paul tweeted the other day, you know, I hate dogs. [00:32:28] They're like, no, I didn't. That's a lie, right? You just sneak in Little lies like that over a while, it becomes a problem. So having the signatures on the data is pretty important. You know, if you're gonna be trying to get people to cooperate, uh, you gotta manage the trust model. I know that ActivityPub does have mechanisms for signed records. Issuers with ActivityPub identifiers [00:32:44] Paul: I don't know how deep they go if they could fully replace that, that utility. and then Mastodon ActivityPub, they also use a different identifier system that they're actually taking a look at DIDs um, right now, I don't know what's gonna happen there. We're, we're totally on board to, you know, give any kind of insight that we got working on 'em. [00:33:06] But at, at the moment, they use I think it's WebFinger based identifiers they look like emails. So you got host names in there and those identifiers are being used in the data records. So you don't get that continuous identifier. They actually do have to do that hey, I moved update your records sort of thing. [00:33:28] And that causes it to, I mean, it works like decently well, but not as well as it could. They got us to the point where it moves your profile over and you update all the folks that were following you so they can update their follow records, but your posts, they're not coming right, because that's too far into that mesh of interlinking records. [00:33:48] There's just no chance. So that's kind of the upper limit on that, it's a different set of choices and trade-offs. You're always kind of asking like, how important is the migration? Does that work out? Anyway, now I'm just kind of digging into differences between the two here. Issues with an identifier that changes and updating old records [00:34:07] Jeremy: So you were saying that with ActivityPub, all of the instances need to be notified that you've changed your identifier but then all of the messages that they had already received. They don't point to the new identifier somehow. [00:34:24] Paul: Yeah. You run into basically just the practicalities of actual engineering with that is what happens, right? Because if you imagine you got a multimillion user social network. They got all their posts. Maybe the user has like, let's say a thousand posts and 10,000 likes. And that, activity can range back three years. [00:34:48] Let's say they changed their identifier, and now you need to change the identifier of all those records. If you're in a traditional system that's already a tall order, you're going back and rewriting a ton of indexes, Anytime somebody replied to you, they have these links to your posts, they're now, you've gotta update the identifiers on all of those things. [00:35:11] You could end up with a pretty significant explosion of rewrites that would have to occur. Now that's, that's tough. If you're in a centralized model. If you're in a decentralized one, it's pretty much impossible because you're now, when you notify all the other servers like, Hey, this, this changed. How successful are all of them at actually updating that, that those, those pointers, it's a good chance that there's things are gonna fall out of correctness. that's just a reality of it. And if, so, if you've got a, if you've got a mutable identifier, you're in trouble for migrations. So the DID is meant to keep it permanent and that ends up being the anchoring point. If you lose control of your DID well, that's it. Managing signing keys by server, paper key reset [00:35:52] Paul: Your, your account's done. We took some pretty traditional approaches to that, uh, where the signing keys get managed by your hosting server instead of like trying to, this may seem like really obvious, but if you're from the decentralization community, we spend a lot of time with blockchains, like, Hey, how do we have the users hold onto their keys? [00:36:15] You know, and the tooling on that is getting better for what it's worth. We're starting to see a lot better key pair management in like Apple's ecosystem and Google's ecosystem, but it's still in the range of like, nah, people lose their keys, you know? So having the servers manage those is important. [00:36:33] Then we have ways of exporting paper keys so that you could kind of adversarially migrate if you wanted to. That was in the early spec we wanted to make sure that this portability idea works, that you can always migrate your accounts so you can export a paper key that can override. [00:36:48] And that was how we figured that out. Like, okay, yeah, we don't have to have everything getting signed by keys that are on the user's devices. We just need these master backup keys that can say, you know what? I'm done with that host. No matter what they say, I'm overriding what they, what they think. and that's how we squared that one. [00:37:06] Jeremy: So it seems like one of the big differences with account migration is that with ActivityPub, when you move to another instance, you have to actually change your identifier. [00:37:20] And with the AT protocol you're actually not allowed to ever change that identifier. And maybe what you're changing is just you have say, some kind of a lookup, like you were saying, you could use a domain name to look that up, get a reference to your decentralized identifier, but your decentralized identifier it can never change. [00:37:47] Paul: It, it, it can't change. Yeah. And it shouldn't need to, you know what I mean? It's really a total disaster kind of situation if that happens. So, you know that it's designed to make sure that doesn't happen in the applications. We use these domain name handles to, to identify folks. And you can change those anytime you want because that's really just a user facing thing. [00:38:09] You know, then in practice what you see pretty often is that you may, if you change hosts, if you're using, we, we give some domains to folks, you know, 'cause like not everybody has their own domain. A lot of people do actually, to our surprise, people actually kind of enjoy doing that. But, a lot of folks are just using like paul.bsky.social as their handle. [00:38:29] And so if you migrated off of that, you probably lose that. Like your, so your handle's gonna change, but you're not losing the followers and stuff. 'cause the internal system isn't using paul.bsky.social, it's using that DID and that DID stays the same. Benefits of domain names, trust signal [00:38:42] Jeremy: Yeah. I thought that was interesting about using the domain names, because when you like you have a lot of users, everybody's got their own sub-domain. You could have however many millions of users. Does that become, does that become an issue at some point? [00:39:00] Paul: Well, it's a funny thing. I mean like the number of users, like that's not really a problem 'cause you run into the same kind of namespace crowding problem that any service is gonna have, right? Like if you just take the subdomain part of it, like the name Paul, like yeah, only, you only get to have one paul.bsky.social. [00:39:15] so that part of like, in terms of the number of users, that part's fine I guess. Uh, as fine as ever. where gets more interesting, of course is like, really kind of around the usability questions. For one, it's, it's not exactly the prettiest to always have that B sky.social in there. If we, if we thought we, if we had some kind of solution to that, we would use it. [00:39:35] But like the reality is that, you know, now we're, we've committed to the domain name approach and some folks, you know, they kind of like, ah, that's a little bit ugly. And we're like, yeah that's life. I guess the plus side though is that you can actually use like TLD the domain. It's like on pfrazee.com. [00:39:53] that starts to get more fun. it can actually act as a pretty good trust signal in certain scenarios. for instance, well-known domain names like nytimes.com, strong authentication right there, we don't even need a blue check for it. Uh, similarly the .gov, domain name space is tightly regulated. [00:40:14] So you actually get a really strong signal out of that. Senator Wyden is one of our users and so he's, I think it's wyden.senate.gov and same thing, strong, you know, strong identity signal right there. So that's actually a really nice upside. So that's like positives, negatives. [00:40:32] That trust signal only works so far. If somebody were to make pfrazee.net, then that can be a bit confusing. People may not be paying attention to .com vs .net, so it's not, I don't wanna give the impression that, ah, we've solved blue checks. It's a complicated and multifaceted situation, but, it's got some juice. [00:40:54] It's also kinda nice too, 'cause a lot of folks that are doing social, they're, they've got other stuff that they're trying to promote, you know? I'm pretty sure that, uh, nytimes would love it if you went to their website. And so tying it to their online presence so directly like that is a really nice kind of feature of it. [00:41:15] And tells a I think a good story about what we're trying to do with an open internet where, yeah, everybody has their space on the internet where they can do whatever they want on that. And that's, and then thethese social profiles, it's that presence showing up in a shared space. It's all kind of part of the same thing. [00:41:34] And that that feels like a nice kind of thing to be chasing, you know? And it also kind of speaks well to the naming worked out for us. We chose AT Protocol as a name. You know, we back acronymed our way into that one. 'cause it was a @ simple sort of thing. But like, it actually ended up really reflecting the biggest part of it, which is that it's about putting people's identities at the front, you know, and make kind of promoting everybody from a second class identity that's underneath Twitter or Facebook or something like that. [00:42:03] Up into. Nope, you're freestanding. You exist as a person independently. Which is what a lot of it's about. [00:42:12] Jeremy: Yeah, I think just in general, not necessarily just for bluesky, if people had more of an interest in getting their own domain, that would be pretty cool if people could tie more of that to something you basically own, right? [00:42:29] I mean, I guess you're leasing it from ICANN or whatever, but, [00:42:33] yeah, rather than everybody having an @Gmail, Outlook or whatever they could actually have something unique that they control more or less. [00:42:43] Paul: Yeah. And we, we actually have a little experimental service for registering domain names that we haven't integrated into the app yet because we just kind of wanted to test it out and, and kind of see what that appetite is for folks to register domain names way higher than you'd think we did that early on. [00:43:01] You know, it's funny when you're coming from decentralization is like an activist space, right? Like it's a group of people trying to change how this tech works. And sometimes you're trying to parse between what might come off as a fascination of technologists compared to what people actually care about. [00:43:20] And it varies, you know, the domain name thing to a surprising degree, folks really got into that. We saw people picking that up almost straight away. More so than certainly we ever predicted. And I think that's just 'cause I guess it speaks to something that people really get about the internet at this point. [00:43:39] Which is great. We did a couple of other things that are similar and we saw varied levels of adoption on them. We had similar kinds of user facing, opening up of the system with algorithms and with moderation. And those have both been pretty interesting in and of themselves. Custom feed algorithms [00:43:58] Paul: So with algorithms, what we did was we set that up so that anybody can create a new feed algorithm. And this was kind of one of the big things that you run into whenever you use the app. If you wanted to create a new kind of for you feed you can set up a service somewhere that's gonna tap into that fire hose, right? [00:44:18] And then all it needs to do is serve a JSON endpoint. That's just a list of URLs, but like, here's what should be in that feed. And then the bluesky app will pick that up and, and send that, hydrate in the content of the posts and show that to folks. I wanna say this is a bit of a misleading number and I'll explain why but I think there's about 35,000 of these feeds that have been created. [00:44:42] Now, the reason it's little misleading is that, I mean, not significantly, but it's not everybody went, sat down in their IDE and wrote these things. Essentially one of our users created, actually multiple of our users made little platforms for building these feeds, which is awesome. That's the kinda thing you wanna see because we haven't gotten around to it. [00:44:57] Our app still doesn't give you a way to make these things. But they did. And so lots of, you know, there it is. Cool. Like, one, one person made a kind of a combinatorial logic thing that's like visual almost like scratch, it's like, so if it has this hashtag and includes these users, but not those users, and you're kind of arranging these blocks and that constructs the feed and then probably publish it on your profile and then folks can use it, you know? [00:45:18] And um, so that has been I would say fairly successful. Except, we had one group of hackers do put in a real effort to make a replacement for you feed, like magic algorithmic feed kind of thing. And then they kind of kept up going for a while and then ended up giving up on it. Most of what we see are actually kind of weird niche use cases for feeds. [00:45:44] You get straightforward ones, like content oriented ones like a cat feed, politics feed, things like that. It's great, some of those are using ML detection, so like the cat feed is ML detection, so sometimes you get like a beaver in there, but most of the time it's a cat. And then we got some ones that are kind of a funny, like change in the dynamic of freshness. [00:46:05] So, uh, or or selection criteria, things that you wouldn't normally see. Um, but because they can do whatever they want, you know, they try it out. So like the quiet posters ended up being a pretty successful one. And that one just shows people you're following that don't post that often when they do just those folks. [00:46:21] It ended up being, I use that one all the time because yeah, like they get lost in the noise. So it's like a way to keep up with them. Custom moderation and labeling [00:46:29] Paul: The moderation one, that one's a a real interesting situation. What we did there essentially we wanted to make sure that the moderation system was capable of operating across different apps so that they can share their work, so to speak. [00:46:43] And so we created what we call labeling. And labeling is a metadata layer that exists over the network. Doesn't actually live in the normal data repositories. It uses a completely different synchronization because a lot of these labels are getting produced. It's just one of those things where the engineering characteristics of the labels is just too different from the rest of the system. [00:47:02] So we created a separate synchronization for this, and it's really kind of straightforward. It's, here's a URL and here's a string saying something like NSFW or Gore, or you know, whatever. then those get merged onto the records brought down by the client and then the client, you know, based on the user's preferences. [00:47:21] We'll put like warning screens up, hide it, stuff like that. So yeah, these label streams can then, you know, anybody that's running a moderation service can, you know, are publishing these things and so anybody can subscribe to 'em. And you get that kind of collaborative thing we're always trying to do with this. [00:47:34] And we had some users set up moderation services and so then as an end user you find it, it looks like a profile in the app and you subscribe to it and you configure it and off you go. That one has had probably the least amount of adoption throughout all of 'em. It's you know, moderation. [00:47:53] It's a sticky topic as you can imagine, challenging for folks. These moderation services, they do receive reports, you know, like whenever I'm reporting a post, I choose from all my moderation services who I wanna report this to. what has ended up happening more than being used to actually filter out like subjective stuff is more kind of like either algorithmic systems or what you might call informational. [00:48:21] So the algorithmic ones are like, one of the more popular ones is a thing that's looking for, posts from other social networks. Like this screenshot of a Reddit post or a Twitter post or a Facebook post. Because, which you're kinda like, why, you know, but the thing is some folks just get really tired of seeing screenshots from the other networks. [00:48:40] 'cause often it's like, look what this person said. Can you believe it? You know, it's like, ah. Okay, I've had enough. So one of our users aendra made a moderate service that just runs an ML that detects it, labels it, and then folks that are tired of it, they subscribe to it and they're just hide it, you know? [00:48:57] And so it's like a smart filter kind of thing that they're doing. you know, hypothetically you could do that for things like spiders, you know, like you've got arachniphobia, things like that. that's like a pretty straightforward, kind of automated way of doing it. Which takes a lot of the spice, you know, outta out of running moderation. [00:49:15] So that users have been like, yeah, yeah, okay, we can do that. [00:49:20] Those are user facing ways that we tried to surface the. Decentralized principle, right? And make take advantage of how this whole architecture can have this kind of a pluggability into it. Users can self host now [00:49:33] Paul: But then really at the end of the day, kind of the important core part of it is those pieces we were talking about before, the hosting, the relay and the, the applications themselves, having those be swappable in completely. so we tend to think of those as kind of ranges of infrastructure into application and then into particular client side stuff. [00:49:56] So a lot of folks right now, for instance, they're making their own clients to the application and those clients are able to do customizations, add features, things like that, as you might expect, [00:50:05] but most of them are not running their own backend. They're just using our backend. But at any point, it's right there for you. You know, you can go ahead and, and clone that software and start running the backend. If you wanted to run your own relay, you could go ahead and go all the way to that point. [00:50:19] You know, if you wanna do your own hosting, you can go ahead and do that. Um, it's all there. It's really just kind of a how much effort your project really wants to take. That's the kind of systemically important part. That's the part that makes sure that the overall mission of de monopolizing, social media online, that's where that really gets enforced. [00:50:40] Jeremy: And so someone has their own data repository with their own users and their own relay. they can request that your relay collect the information from their own data repositories. And that's, that's how these connections get made. [00:50:58] Paul: Yeah. And, and we have a fair number of those already. Fair number of, we call those the self hosters right? And we got I wanna say 75 self hoster going right now, which is, you know, love to see that be more, but it's, really the folks that if you're running a service, you probably would end up doing that. [00:51:20] But the folks that are just doing it for themselves, it's kind of the, the nerdiest of the nerds over there doing that. 'cause it doesn't end up showing itself in the, in the application at all. Right? It's totally abstracted away. So it, that, that one's really about like, uh, measure your paranoia kind of thing. [00:51:36] Or if you're just proud of the self-hosting or, or curious, you know, that that's kind of where that sits at the moment. AT Protocol beyond bluesky [00:51:42] Jeremy: We haven't really touched on the fact that there's this underlying protocol and everything we've been discussing has been centered around the bluesky social network where you run your own, instance of the relay and the data repositories with the purpose of talking to bluesky, but the protocol itself is also intended to be used for other uses, right? [00:52:06] Paul: Yeah. It's generic. The data types are set up in a way that anybody can build new data types in the system. there's a couple that have already begun, uh, front page, which is kind of a hacker news clone. There's Smoke Signals, which is a events app. There's Blue Cast, which is like a Twitter spaces, clubhouse kind of thing. [00:52:29] Those are the folks that are kind of willing to trudge into the bleeding edge and deal with some of the rough edges there for pretty I think, obvious reasons. A lot of our work gets focused in on making sure that the bluesky app and that use case is working correctly. [00:52:43] But we are starting to round the corner on getting to a full kind of how to make alternative applications state. If you go to the atproto.com, there's a kind of a introductory tutorial where that actually shows that whole stack and how it's done. So it's getting pretty close. There's a couple of still things that we wanna finish up. [00:53:04] jeremy so in a way you can almost think of it as having an eventually consistent data store on the network, You can make a traditional web application with a relational database, and the source of truth can actually be wherever that data repository is stored on the network. [00:53:24] paul Yeah, that's exactly, it is an eventually consistent system. That's exactly right. The source of truth is there, is their data repo. And that relational database that you might be using, I think the best way to think about it is like secondary indexes or computed indexes, right? They, reflect the source of truth. [00:53:43] Paul: This is getting kind of grandiose. I don't tend to poses in these terms, but it is almost like we're trying to have an OS layer at a protocol level. It's like having your own [00:53:54] Network wide database or network-wide file system, you know, these are the kind of facilities you expect out of a platform like an os And so the hope would be that this ends up getting that usage outside of just the initial social, uh, app, like what we're doing here. [00:54:12] If it doesn't end up working out that way, if this ends up, you know, good for the Twitter style use case, the other one's not so much, and that's fine too. You know, that's, that's our initial goal, but we, we wanted to make sure to build it in a way that like, yeah, there's evolve ability to, it keeps, it, keeps it, make sure that you're getting kinda the most utility you can out of it. Peer-to-peer and the difficulty of federated queries [00:54:30] Jeremy: Yeah, I can see some of the parallels to some of the decentralized stuff that I, I suppose people are still working on, but more on the peer-to-peer side, where the idea was that I can have a network host this data. but, and in this case it's a network of maybe larger providers where they could host a bunch of people's data versus just straight peer to peer where everybody has to have a piece of it. [00:54:57] And it seems like your angle there was really the scalability part. [00:55:02] Paul: It was the scalability part. And there's great work happening in peer-to-peer. There's a lot of advances on it that are still happening. I think really the limiter that you run into is running queries against aggregations of data. Because you can get the network, you know, BitTorrent sort of proved that you can do distributed open horizontal scaling of hosting. [00:55:29] You know, that basic idea of, hey, everybody's got a piece and you sync it from all these different places. We know you can do things like that. What nobody's been able to really get into a good place is running, queries across large data sets. In the model like that, there's been some research in what is, what's called federated queries, which is where you're sending a query to multiple different nodes and asking them to fulfill as much of it as they can and then collating the results back. But it didn't work that well. That's still kind of an open question and until that is in a place where it can like reliably work and at very large scales, you're just gonna need a big database somewhere that does give the properties that you need. You need these big indexes. And once we were pretty sure of that requirement, then from there you start asking, all right, what else about the system [00:56:29] Could we make easier if we just apply some more traditional techniques and merge that in with the peer-to-peer ideas? And so key hosting, that's an obvious one. You know, availability, let's just have a server. It's no big deal. But you're trying to, you're trying to make as much of them dumb as possible. [00:56:47] So that they have that easy replaceability. Moderation challenges [00:56:51] Jeremy: Earlier you were talking a a little bit about the moderation tools that people could build themselves. There was some process where people could label posts and then build their own software to determine what a feed should show per a person. [00:57:07] Paul: Mm-Hmm [00:57:07] Jeremy: But, but I think before that layer for the platform itself, there's a base level of moderation that has to happen. [00:57:19] Paul: yeah. [00:57:20] Jeremy: And I wonder if you could speak to, as the app has grown, how that's handled. [00:57:26] Paul: Yeah. the, you gotta take some requirements in moderation pretty seriously to start. And with decentralization. It sometimes that gets a little bit dropped. You need to have systems that can deal with questions about CSAM. So you got those big questions you gotta answer and then you got stuff that's more in the line of like, alright, what makes a good platform? [00:57:54] What kind of guarantees are we trying to give there? So just not legal concerns, but you know, good product experience concerns. That's something we're in the realm of like spam and and abusive behavior and things like that. And then you get into even more fine grain of like what is a person's subjective preference and how can they kind of make their thing better? [00:58:15] And so you get a kind of a telescoping level of concerns from the really big, the legal sort of concerns. And then the really small subjective preference kind of concerns. And that actually that telescoping maps really closely to the design of the system as well. Where the further you get up in the kind of the, in that legal concern territory, you're now in core infrastructure. [00:58:39] And then you go from infrastructure, which is the relay down into the application, which is kind of a platform and then down into the client. And that's where we're having those labelers apply. And each of them, as you kind of move closer to infrastructure, the importance of the decision gets bigger too. [00:58:56] So you're trying to do just legal concerns with the relay right? Stuff that you objectively can, everybody's in agreement like Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, no bigs don't include that. The reason is that at the relay level, you're anybody that's using your relay, they depend on the decisions you're making, that sort of selection you're doing, any filtering you're doing, they don't get a choice after that. [00:59:19] So you wanna try to keep that focus really on legal concerns and doing that well. so that applications that are downstream of it can, can make their choices. The applications themselves, you know, somebody can run a parallel I guess you could call it like a parallel platform, so we got bluesky doing the microblogging use case, other people can make an application doing the microblogging use case. So there's, there's choice that users can easily switch, easily enough switch between, it's still a big choice. [00:59:50] So we're operating that in many ways. Like any other app nowadays might do it. You've got policies, you know, for what's acceptable on the network. you're still trying to keep that to be as, you know, objective as possible, make it fair, things like that. You want folks to trust your T&S team. Uh, but from the kind of systemic decentralization question, you get to be a little bit more opinionated. [01:00:13] Down all the way into the client with that labeling system where you can, you know, this is individuals turning on and off preferences. You can be as opinionated as you want on that letter. And that's how we have basically approached this. And in a lot of ways, it really just comes down to, in the day to day, you're the moderation, the volume of moderation tasks is huge. [01:00:40] You don't actually have high stakes moderation decisions most of the time. Most of 'em are you know pretty straightforward. Shouldn't have done that. That's gotta go. You get a couple every once in a while that are a little spicier or a policy that's a little spicier. And it probably feels pretty common to end users, but that just speaks to how much moderation challenges how the volume of reports and problems that come through. [01:01:12] And we don't wanna make it so that the system is seized up, trying to decentralize itself. You know, it needs to be able to operate day to day. What you wanna make is, you know, back pressure, you know, uh, checks on that power so that if an application or a platform does really start to go down the wrong direction on moderation, then people can have this credible exit. [01:01:36] This way of saying, you know what, that's a problem. We're moving from here. And somebody else can come in with different policies that better fit people's people's expectations about what should be done at, at these levels. So yeah, it's not about taking away authority, it's about checking authority, you know, kind of a checks and balances mentality. [01:01:56] Jeremy: And high level, 'cause you saying how there's such a high volume of, of things that you know what it is, you'd know you wanna remove it, but there's just so much of it. So is there, do you have automated tools to label these things? Do you have a team of moderators? Do they have to understand all the different languages that are coming through your network? [01:02:20] Yes, yes, yes and yes. Yeah. You use every tool at your disposal to, to stay on top of it. cause you're trying to move as fast as you can, folks. The problems showing up, you know, the slower you are to respond to it, the, the more irritating it is to folks. Likewise, if you make a, a missed call, if somebody misunderstands what's happening, which believe me, is sometimes just figuring out what the heck is going on is hard. [01:02:52] Paul: People's beefs definitely surface up to the moderation misunderstanding or wrong application. Moderators make mistakes so you're trying to maintain a pretty quick turnaround on this stuff. That's tough. And you, especially when to move fast on some really upsetting content that can make its way through, again, illegal stuff, for instance, but more videos, stuff like that, you know, it's a real problem. [01:03:20] So yeah, you're gotta be using some automated systems as well. Clamping down on bot rings and spam. You know, you can imagine that's gotten a lot harder thanks to LLMs just doing text analysis by dumb statistics of what they're talking about that doesn't even work anymore. [01:03:41] 'cause the, the LLMs are capable of producing consistently varied responses while still achieving the same goal of plugging a online betting site of some kind, you know? So we do use kind of dumb heuristic systems for when it works, but boy, that won't work for much longer. [01:04:03] And we've already got cases where it's, oh boy, so the moderation's in a dynamic place to say the least right now with, with LLMs coming in, it was tough before and
Dr. Janet Patterson: Welcome to this Aphasia Access Aphasia Conversations Podcast, a series of conversations about the LPAA model and aphasia programs that follow this model. My name is Janet Patterson, and I am a research speech-language pathologist at the VA Northern California Healthcare System in Martinez, California. Today, I am delighted to be speaking with Dr. Elizabeth Madden, an Assistant Professor at Florida State University in the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders and an affiliate of the Institute for Successful Longevity. Liz also leads the FSU Aphasia Research Laboratory. Liz's research, teaching and clinical interests focus on rehabilitation of aphasia, and specifically on understanding the relationship between spoken and written language abilities in individuals with aphasia and developing behavioral treatments to address reading and writing disorders post stroke. Her work also addresses the impact of aphasia on the friendships and social well-being of people with aphasia and their care partners. These Show Notes accompany the conversation with Liz but are not a verbatim transcript. In today's episode you will hear about: the power of friendship and what people with aphasia and care partners think about how aphasia can affect the ability to create and sustain friendships, the definition of literacy and its behavioral components, and behavioral treatments for reading comprehension deficit in aphasia. In 2024, Liz was named a Distinguished Scholar USA by the Tavistock Trust for Aphasia UK. The Tavistock Trust aims to help improve the quality of life for those with aphasia, their families and care partners by addressing research capacity related to quality-of-life issues in aphasia. Congratulations on receiving this honor, Liz. Aphasia Access collaborates with the Tavistock Trust for Aphasia in selecting the awardees and is pleased to have the opportunity to discuss their work and the career influence of the Tavistock Award. Welcome Liz, to Aphasia Access Conversations. Dr. Liz Madden: Thank you, Janet. I'm really happy to be here today. I also say thank you to Aphasia Access and to the Tavistock Trust for Aphasia. I'm very grateful for this award and excited to have this conversation. Janet: I'm excited to be talking to you, my friend and research partner in several endeavors that we've been working on over the last few years. Liz, as we've said, you were named a Tavistock Trust Distinguished Scholar USA for this year, and you join a talented and dedicated group of individuals. How has receiving the Tavistock Award influenced your clinical and research efforts in aphasia, Liz: I first wanted to extend that thank you to the Tavistock Trust for Aphasia, and specifically Henrietta, the Duchess of Bedford and the honorable Nicole Campbell, and just a very gracious, sincere thank you for all the time and effort and support they give to aphasia researchers. I would say, I'm just delighted and very humbled to be recognized this year. I would say further that this award motivates my work that is focused on trying to really make an impact on the lives and quality of life and successful living for people who have aphasia and continuing my work. My beginning work was really more impairment focused, which some of that we will talk about, and I really value that. But having this award, and the more I stay in the field, it is extending that and making sure that everything I'm doing always is directly related to helping the lives of people with aphasia. Janet: That leads right into the question I'd like to begin with Liz, which is about your recent work investigating the role of friendship for persons with aphasia. I believe in the power of friendship and community during joyful times and also during the sad times in one's life. In Aphasia. Access podcast episode number 119, Finding the person in front of aphasia, I talked with your friend and colleague, Dr Lauren Bislick, with whom I believe you collaborate to investigate friendship and aphasia. How did you become interested in this aspect of aphasia, and what can you tell us about your work in this area and your collaboration with Lauren? Liz: Lauren and I did our Ph.D.'s together. We both were mentored by Diane Kendall at the University of Washington, so Lauren and I are Ph.D. sisters. Also, we were both at Project Bridge, led by Dr. Jackie Hinkley in 2018. That's really where my interest in friendship began. That conference brought together researchers, speech-language pathologists, people with aphasia, and their friends and family. I was the researcher at a table, and we ended up being Team Friendship. Lauren was also at this meeting, but she was at Team Yoga; Lauren does a lot of work with friendship, but also with yoga. My other colleague who does a lot of friendship work with me is Dr. Michelle Therrien here at FSU. She primarily works with children who use AAC, but her main research is friendship. She and I had already had some conversations about the importance of friendship, particularly for people who have communication disorders. The idea was we leave the conference and to take action and carry out some of the goals that were generated from that discussion. So that's when I reached back out to Lauren, because she was at that conference. Then I also reached out to my friend, Michelle Therrien, and other individuals who became part of our Team Friendship, Dr. Sarah Wallace, who's also one of our good friends and collaborators, and Rachel Gough Albritton who is one of Jackie Hinkley's former doc students and here at FSU as well. and the office of research. That is the background of some conversations before Project Bridge, but really for me, coming back and actually starting studies addressing different aspects of friendship, which I know we'll talk more about, was really brought about by the Project Bridge conference. Janet: That is quite a story, and I can see you sitting around the table and developing Team Friendship - good for you. We all know, Liz, that one of the unfortunate consequences of aphasia can be the loss of or the diminishing of friendships, or the disruption of the communication skills important to developing and sustaining friendship and community. What have you learned from people with aphasia about their successes and challenges in sustaining and creating new friendships. Liz: Yes, good question. Well, at that conference that I mentioned, there were five or six people with aphasia, and initially our table was labeled something like, What happens in the long run? and we started having conversations. It was very clear after our initial conversation that the group centered on relationships and friendship, so we shifted to being friendship only. I will say, just at that table, it became very clear to me, that's what rose to the top when the group was thinking about the bigger picture of living life. In a research project we've done there was a small sample of 15 people with aphasia, and we talked to them over time. I think the timing of a conversation is really something important to keep in mind when we're talking to people with aphasia about any topic, of course, but particularly friendship. From other studies we've noticed that responses are really different. If we're talking during the early days, maybe the acute days, versus the chronic days, we'd get really different responses. Just a quick summary, again, this was 15 people and a unique set. Most people in our study were a part of aphasia groups, and, of course, really motivated to do research. But I will say, when we looked at their responses, when asked to think back to the early days, all different aspects of friendship, how supported they felt, or how they were able to communicate, and we compared it to their responses in the now. Overall, the pattern was less satisfaction, feeling less supported or less able to engage in those earlier days, but more of a recovery pattern over time, but again, not for everybody. There were still a few people in our group that were reporting not having many friends. Our paper had a different light, a positive light about friendships. Some of the other papers out there have a more negative tone. It's a very important area we need to address. I was happy to see this group reporting, now that they had been living with aphasia for several years, their pattern of more negative responses early, and a recovering pattern now. They reported making friends with other people who have aphasia, and finding at this point, who are those good friends. There's other great work being done by other colleagues, Brent Archer, Jamie Azios and Katie Strong, who are studying the same topic. They had a great paper that describes who stuck around, they were examining the next steps of what it takes to support the positive recovery that we know does happen for some people. Janet: I like the positive perspective you are taking. Given that one has had a stroke, and given that the this is the situation in life, what is the positive? What can you do? Who are your friends? Look at positive ideas rather than publishing research on all the negative aspects. Kudos to you for doing that. Liz: Thanks, all of it's important, right? We have to know that. I think we had a special group. I think we had a particularly positive outcome, and it was good to know that friendships don't disappear for everyone. But I think there's something that those people had done and that their friends had done, that we're still trying to learn more about. Janet: Thank you for that work. Liz. It makes me think about the aphasia journey in that it involves not just the person with aphasia, but also their care partners and all the people around them. In your investigations of friendship, what do the care partners of persons with aphasia tell you about their successes and challenges in sustaining and developing friendships? These friendships could be individual friendships or partner friendships or group friendships through social, religious or professional activities or even community groups. Liz: Thank you for this question. I think it's sometimes a forgotten group that we overlook, the care partners, and the critical role they play in the recovery of people with aphasia. I always try to have us remember we want the care partners to do well on their own as people, and so we've done a couple projects. We've just finished data collection on a much larger study of 80 aphasia care partners, and I'm just getting into those data. We did a Qualtrics survey and also did experience sampling, where we used a phone app, and four times a day for two weeks, participants got these little pings, and they had to tell us, Where are you? What are you doing? Who are you with? How are you feeling? When was the last time you interacted with a friend? Was it a text? I don't have the amazing outcomes for you yet. This project was a much bigger follow-up to a project a few years ago with 35 care partners. We, of course, wanted to interview them but then COVID was happening, so we settled for a really nice Qualtrics survey. I will say that these individuals were surprised when we were reaching out to them. They kept trying to schedule their loved one with aphasia, and we said, “No, we want to talk to you about your friendships.” And they were surprised, asking, “You want to talk about me.' I will say they were very excited that we wanted to know about them. Back to the timeline I shared earlier in that very small study, the profile was opposite. We asked them about their friendships before they were caregivers, the early stages of caregiving, and then now, and their comments kind of make sense. Across the group they reported in the early stages, they felt like they had really great friends, support and satisfaction. People were rallying around them, coming to the hospital to support them. Many of them had been caregiving for a very long time when we did a comparison, and their reported friendship satisfaction and support was actually lower now. The questions were not the same and the groups were different, but as I told you a few minutes ago, the people with aphasia were more negative in the acute stage, and our small group were more positive now with how they're feeling about their friendships, and the care partners were the opposite. They were feeling more supported in the beginning, and now as time has gone on, some of them report the friends aren't there as much. Some of them felt like they were a burden, or they didn't know how to engage, being very selfless. They have dropped their own social interests to take care of their loved one. We did see in that project, that the longer, the more months a person had been caregiving, was correlated with poor self-perceived friendships and also how they perceived their loved one's health. That was just their perception. If they perceived their loved one to have more health concerns, not just a feature but overall health, they also tended to rate themselves as not as satisfied with their friendship. Bringing in that piece of information and the caregiving burden into our new projects, we did actually get scales on resilience and caregiving burden depression. In this new project we replicated some of our same questions, and we're now trying to look more at overall well-being, seeing how resilience and purpose in life and caregiving burden might play a role. Janet: That reminds me of the commercials, when you are taking off in an airplane or when you are thinking about being a care partner, you do have to take care of yourself as the care partner before you can give the best care to the person with aphasia. Anything that we can do to focus on the person the with aphasia, and also focus on the care partner, I think, is good in terms of developing and sustaining friendships, Liz: Yes. Care partners definitely have a lot more to say, and we haven't actually been able to do face to face interviews yet, but we did have a lot of really rich, open ended responses and surveys that we're still looking through. A piece I'm really interested in, is we have that one-time perception when they did our one-time survey, now we have their responses, we can track how people respond over a two-week period, were they always at home with their loved ones and not responding to friends? I think there's just a lot and again, trying to understand from this group what are the positives. Who are the people that have these positive responses? Then, of course, the next big steps are trying to provide more research resources and interventions for both care partners and people with aphasia. Our group has not yet reached out to friends, so that's a big part to come. I think other researchers have examined friends and a key part intervening with these friends too. Janet: People with aphasia and care partners have different friendship styles and needs, and when aphasia disrupts communication, it can also affect the way a person approaches friendship. As speech-language pathologists, I believe that we can play a role in guiding a person with aphasia and a care partner to develop communication skills that can support friendship efforts. Liz, what are some ideas or actions that you might think of for speech-language pathologists in a busy clinical practice? What kind of actions can they take to support friendship activities, for a person with aphasia, recognizing, of course, that we are all different in our friendship activities. Also recognizing that you're at the very beginning of some of this work, I'm hoping that you have some ideas you might be able to share with us. Liz: Yes, actually our very first friendship project addressed this topic. It was led by Michelle Therrien, and we surveyed about 40 speech-language pathologists trying to find out their view of the role that they think they should play. They find friendship to be very important. They find it to be in their scope of practice. But not surprising, were not aware of resources. They felt overwhelmed with how much speech-language pathologists have to cover, right? But it was really good to know that the group we reached out to found it to be a very important part of their practice that they want to address. I think you hit on something really important, that we teach and adopt having a person-centered care model, and we know that it's part of what we ask about. The simplest thing is asking. We don't need tools. We just need to make sure it's part of what we ask, making sure we're talking about relationships, talking about friendships. There are some really great tools that do exist. There's the Stroke Social Network Scale by Sarah Northcott and Katerina Hillary from the UK. Katie Strong, Brent Archer, Jamie Azios and Natalie Douglas are a wonderful group who have been studying friendship. They've used the Social Convoy Model in some of their papers. It has a great visual that they have used, and therapists can also use. Basically, it is mapping out the social network of who's most important, which could be used one time, or as a pre-post measure. There are different ways, formal or informal, of trying to monitor someone's social network or how they feel supported. I don't think there's a target number of friendships and I don't think more means better, but it could be just making sure we're checking in and that we know that's an important part of therapy. We want them to be able to communicate and interact with friends. Speech-language pathologists are creative in to how to make that happen. Janet: I agree with that view Liz, and I hope that speech-language pathologists will feel comfortable being creative and asking people about their friendships or what they might need to help maintain or sustain their friendships. I would like to turn now to the topics of reading and literacy, which I know you have been investigating. While these terms are related, they are not synonymous. Would you please explain the difference between them and how you are investigating both in your research? Liz: Yes. Thanks. That is a good question. To be honest, the first answer is not very scientific. When I was writing papers it was getting cumbersome to always write reading and spelling/ writing. The term came to be when I wanted to make sure that I was making it clear that I wasn't just focused on reading, but also concerned with the spelling and writing components. With my colleagues, Jessica Obermeier and Aaron Bush, we started using the term literacy for some of our work. People will have different ideas of what literacy might entail. I have been describing treatment as “literacy focused”, working on reading and spelling and writing. My initial work was very much focused on reading, and over the past several years I became more interested in trying to also add on the spelling component. If we're working on spelling and writing it gives us a chance to inherently work on the reading. If we're only focused on reading, it doesn't bring in the writing. There's a time for them to be separate, I fully agree. There are also times where they can be targeted at the same time. Janet: That makes perfect sense. When I think about how we discussed in the past, reading for pleasure, or reading to gain knowledge, or reading for information, or reading for safety, so many different aspects of reading, literacy also factors into how you use reading in those situations. Liz: Yes, and so in a lot of day-to-day communication, you need both, right? It's for text messaging, right? We need to read it and respond in a written way, also emails. There are lots of instances where for the for the interaction to go well, we need to be able to read and respond in writing, such as filling out forms, email, texting, social media. For a lot of interactions we need both for there to be a successful written language exchange. Janet: Liz, as part of our work with the Academy of Neurologic Communication Disorders and Sciences, Aphasia Writing Group, you and I were part of the team who critically reviewed treatment approaches for reading comprehension deficits in persons with aphasia. You've also investigated, as you mentioned earlier, specific aspects of reading deficits in persons with aphasia. What are some of the insights that you have gained from this work? And by the way, it was such a pleasure doing that critical review of treatment for reading deficits, and there was a lot of interesting information that came to light in that paper. Liz: Yes, thank you. I was going to comment that I remember we thought we were going to have all these papers to go through and really and that review, we were very much focused on papers where the main outcome was reading comprehension. When we stuck to what our aim was, there really weren't that many papers that that met the aim of that project. So that really brought to light that it really is an area of our field that doesn't have enough attention. Some of my recent projects, as I mentioned with Aaron Bush and Jessica Obermeier, we've talked to people with aphasia and gotten their perspective of before and early days. I really like doing this research over time. Things change, but we learned just how important reading and writing are to people with aphasia, and that they really want to work on it. I think we've seen when we looked in the literature, there wasn't much there. When we've talked to people with aphasia and speech-language pathologists, they want to work on reading, and they're not sure how. That further motivates me that this is an area to work on. In some of my beginning work, I was Diane Kendall's research speech language pathologist for a few years before I did my Ph.D., and I exclusively delivered her phono motor treatment. In that research trial, the main outcome was word retrieval, but the therapy that she designed inherently worked a lot on reading and writing. We retrained every phoneme - how to say it, what your mouth is doing, and also the graphemes that go with the phonemes. As her research speech pathologist, that's really when I got very interested in reading. I'd be in these sessions, and we'd finally bring out the graphemes that go with the phonemes. I recall telling people that this is going to get better – and it did not. That connection between the phonemes and the graphemes, for a lot of people, wasn't there. In that clinical experience as her research speech pathologist is when I realized that the treatment improved reading for some people, but not for everyone. So that's my background of really getting focused on reading. In the last few years, I've been working on adapting that original version of treatment that was for word retrieval. I've added some components to make it more focused on reading. I've been working with Olga Burkina, who's at the Kessler Stroke Foundation, and has an NIH grant where she is pairing exercise with this reading focused phono motor treatment. It's fun to be a part of that group exploring the idea of doing aerobic exercise to improve the brain blood flow, and to see if that's going to help improve reading treatment. Again, the idea being going forward is what the treatment might change. There are some other projects also. I'm working with Will Graves at Rutgers. He is using computational modeling to have us stop guessing which treatment. We're trying to get a really good baseline assessment, trying to find out about semantic impairment, phonological impairment, and then we're using this reading focused phono motor treatment. We also have a reading focus semantic feature analysis. I really enjoy getting to work with different researchers who have these wonderful, big questions, and that I'm getting to support it as the speech-language pathologist on these projects focused on reading and writing and phono motor treatment. So those are some exciting projects I'm involved in right now. Janet: That's exciting, because you started out by saying there were only a few papers that we found that really address reading treatment, and you're right. It's daunting, then how do you select the reading treatment? How do you help this person with aphasia who wants to improve their reading comprehension? I think it's exciting that you've got all these different avenues and are working with a variety of people to investigate treatment. Liz: Yeah. And the one thing I'll add to that is part of that, that review we did, for some people those treatments are helping reading comprehension. But for some people, I've been trying to work on the next step. I have a very small dataset where I've added a semantic comprehension stage to my adapted photo motor treatment. I'm in the very early stages of this and I'm sure it's fine to say, but I've been having these really exciting conversations with Kelly Knollman-Porter and Sarah Wallace. They're also Tavistock Trust recipients, and they study reading from a different perspective, using text to speech, compensatory and very focused book reading. They're very comprehension focused, so we're at the very early, fun stages of where we are in our thinking. I think there might be a middle step we are missing, but we are talking about taking these impairment focused treatments, which I think have a role, and have a participation, functional part of it. That's another emerging, new collaboration, where we are coming to reading from different perspectives, and we're trying to see where we can get with that goal, back to this comprehension question, improving functional reading, maybe from impairment and compensatory approaches. Janet: I think that's the right approach to take, and I think it's exciting, because we have to remember that everybody reads differently. Some people like reading, some people don't enjoy reading. They read what they have to, but they don't particularly enjoy it. So, if we all come to it from different perspectives, we all have different strengths that we bring, and different deficits as well, and different needs or designs, just as is so many things with aphasia. Start with the person with aphasia, asking What do you want to read? What problems are you having? Then use that as a guide to selecting an impairment-based treatment or text to speech treatment, or whatever. I think that's exactly the right approach. Liz: The one thing the treatment we were talking about, phono motor treatment, in general, is a phonology treatment. The good thing is that my focus is asking, is it improving reading? I'm also extending it to writing. We do know at its core, it's a language treatment, so it is nice that it can be tweaked to serve the person's main interests. I think that's important, that we are trying to work on what people want to work on, but we want to make sure we're improving, if we can, not just one language modality, and we know that these abilities are supported by similar brain structures and underling cognitive processes. That's something else we've been trying to work on, being person centered and at the same time trying to maximize generalization - lots of pieces. I am finding now what's most motivating and exciting is trying to make sure that we're doing things that people with aphasia find important, and how also to keep the whole science moving forward in this way that's going to have functional, important outcomes. That people with aphasia are going to be able to do what they want to do to the best that they can. Janet: Absolutely! But then there's the scientific challenge of how do you collect the data? How to best observe specific outcome data on performance measures, but also collect the person-centered data. How do you collect data that really can speak to whether you're having a success and whether this might be generalizable or transferable to another person? Liz: I think it's important that we need both. I always say, and some of my collaborators may not like it, but if in the person reported outcome, a person with aphasia is telling us that they feel better and that they are communicating better in life, and those measures should not be optional, those measures to me, a critically important part of seeing this treatment successful. There are different ways to do that and different ways to capture their perspective. For example, if trained reading words moved this much and if the patient reported outcome change is greater, then I find that to be a success. If the reverse happens, I find treatment not successful. If my probes showed gain but the person with aphasia does not see it or feel it, then I don't find treatment to be a success. So, I think it's really important that persons with aphasia tell us different things, and we need to have many assessments in both of those categories. I think, when possible. Janet: You're absolutely right. When you think about many of the treatments that we're doing, they are not necessarily easy, and they take time, and you have to stay the course. I think you know, I've been interested for a number of years in motivation and engagement, and what keeps people motivated and doing what they're doing. If you've got a treatment that you can see over time, small changes in your specific reading outcomes, but not so much of a change in the person centered outcomes, or person reported outcomes, how do you know the person is still really engaged and motivated and willing to slog through your treatment in order to get to the place that you hope they will? I think you're correct when you're assessing the importance of the person reported outcome. Liz: Yeah, that's good. And then that's a whole other like measure in itself, right? The key of motivation we've talked about in some of the trials. The one person who didn't do very well, and just in our conversation, sometimes it for different reasons. That wasn't motivating for that person. There's that's a whole very important piece that a lot of us have a lot of room to improve in how we capture that and support that. Janet: Which is a challenge when we're trying to devise treatments for, say, reading or anything that can be applicable to a wide range of persons with aphasia. Kudos to you for meeting that challenge as best you can. Liz: We're working on it. But I do really think that it's changing. Sometimes I feel like there are impairment-based people and life participation people, and I don't think it needs to be that way. It's fine if we only study one area. We can't all study everything, but I think as a whole they complement each other very well. And so I'm just excited to see that it seems like things are moving in a really exciting way, where people who study aphasia in various different ways now seem to have the main outcome, asking is this going to help people with aphasia feel better, communicate better, and look forward to something different in life? I think we're all seeing that that's what we're supposed to be doing, and how we do it is going to look really different, and that's great. I think we're moving in the right direction. Janet: Very well said. I think, and you obviously do as well, that literacy and reading skills are crucially important to individuals with aphasia in so many ways, such as life skills reading or pleasure reading. Acknowledging that we all have different skill levels and preferences, what are some ideas that you might have identified that speech-language pathologists can use to support the literacy and reading desires and activities for a person with aphasia? Liz: Great question. I think my answer is very similar to the question about what can SLPs do to help support friendship? I think being person centered. You said earlier, right, we all have different interests. Somebody might say it's not one of my goals and I really don't want to spend a lot of time on this. But just having those conversations and person-centered measures and using supported conversation we can easily gather important information. There are some really good patient-reported outcome measures that ask about reading, so maybe use some of those existing tools. The Comprehensive Aphasia Disability Questionnaire has a nice scale that talks about different aspects of reading as well as other aspects of language. But at the minimum, I think finding a way, even just to draw your own scale and then trying to find out in their life, what are different activities where they want to or need to engage, right? Texting, email, restaurant. I mean, we think about it, we're reading all the time throughout life. So, I think finding the reading need is a general interest and then getting really specific is one way to do it. Another thing could be, as I mentioned before, our brain relies on similar structures and language networks when we are engaging in spoken language and written language. So oftentimes improving our reading and writing improves our spoken abilities and vice versa. So even if it's not the main goal in treatment, for example if the main outcome might be word retrieval, I really believe multimodal learning is important. If, after you've gone through what you want to do say writing it, having them repeat it, maybe copy it, even though that's not the main goal, and it's not slowing the therapy, if it's working for you and your client, then I really think, at the minimum, using written language to support spoken language has a good role. I also think the opposite can be true using spoken language to support written language. So I do think that it's important that we know we are addressing all of language, and that that language skills really do usually move up and down together in aphasia. Janet: Well said, again. Liz, thank you so very much for joining me today in this fascinating look into friendship, literacy, reading and aphasia. And again, hearty congratulations to you on being named Tavistock, Distinguished Scholar. On behalf of Aphasia Access, I wish you well in your research and clinical efforts, and thank you for taking the time to speak with me today. At this point, I'd also like to thank our listeners for supporting Aphasia Access Conversations by listening to our podcast, including this fascinating discussion with Liz Madden. Liz: Thanks so much, Janet, I feel like you could just chat with you all day. Thank you again for giving me a chance to highlight some of my work. Also I want to thank everyone with aphasia who has participated in my projects, all my students and collaborators, Aphasia Access and the Tavistock Trust for Aphasia. Thanks again. Janet: For references and resources mentioned in today's podcast, please see our Show Notes. They are available on our website, www.aphasiaaccess.org. There you can also become a member of our organization, browse our growing library of materials, and find out about the Aphasia Access Academy. If you have an idea for a future podcast episode, email us at info@aphasiaaccess.org. For Aphasia Access Conversations, I'm Janet Patterson, thanking you again for your ongoing support of Aphasia Access. References Antonucci, T. C., & Akiyama, H. (1987). Social networks in adult life and a preliminary examination of the convoy model. Journal of Gerontology, 42(5), 519–527. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronj/42.5.519 Archer, B.A., Azios, J.H., Douglas, N.F., Strong, K.A., Worrall, L.D. & Simmons-Mackie, N.F. (2024). “I Could Not Talk . . . She Did Everything . . . She's Now My Sister”: People with Aphasia's Perspectives on Friends Who Stuck Around. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 33, 349–368. https://doi.org/10.1044/2023_AJSLP-23-00205 Azios, J.H., Strong, K.A., Archer, B, Douglas, N.F., Simmons-Mackie, N. & Worrall, L. (2021). Friendship matters: A research agenda for aphasia. Aphasiology, 36(3),317-336. https://10.1080/02687038.2021.1873908 Madden, E.B., Bislick, L., Wallace, S.E., Therrien, M.C.S. & Goff-Albritton, R. (2023). Aphasia and friendship: Stroke survivors' self-reported changes over time. Journal of Communication Disorders, 103, 106330. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcomdis.2023.106330 Madden, E., Conway, T., Henry, M., Spencer, K., Yorkston, K., & Kendall, D. (2018). The relationship between non-orthographic language abilities and reading performance in chronic aphasia: An exploration of the primary systems hypothesis. Journal of Speech Language Hearing Research, 61, 3038-3054. https://doi.org/10.1044/2018_JSLHR-L-18-0058 Madden, E. B., Torrence, J., & Kendall, D. (2020). Cross-modal generalization of anomia treatment to reading in aphasia. Aphasiology, 35, 875-899. https://doi.org/10.1080/02687038.2020.1734529 Purdy, M., Coppens, P., Madden, E. B., Freed, D., Mozeiko, J., Patterson, J., & Wallace, S. (2018). Reading comprehension treatment in aphasia: A systematic review. Aphasiology, 33(6), 629–651. https://doi.org/10.1080/02687038.2018.1482405 Strong, K.A., Douglas, N.F., Johnson, R., Silverman, M., Azios, J.H. & Archer, B. (2023). Stakeholder-engaged research: What our friendship in aphasia team learned about processes and pitfalls. Topics in Language Disorders, 43(1), 43-56. https://10.1097/TLD.0000000000000302 Therrien, M., Madden, E. B., Bislick, L., & Wallace, S. (2021). Aphasia and Friendship: The Role and Perspectives of Speech-Language Pathologists. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 30(5), 2228-2240. Resources Stroke Social Network Scale reference and materials: https://cityaccess.org/tests/ssns/ Aphasia Access Conversations Episode #119 - Finding the person in front of aphasia: A conversation with Lauren Bislick
Tonight we explore a movie that resulted from trying to make another "The Longest Day" (1962) for the late '70s. Yes, 1977's "A Bridge Too Far" shares many logistical, stylistic and thematic similarities with TLD, including the same author of the source novels. So join us as we chase a movie with a long runttime and myriad stars of its time, as they execute a real-life paratrooper-centered operation after D-Day. Asides include... a corporate paradox and a funny name-joke from "The Sopranos." Drop us a line at worldwartwomovienight@gmail.com Check out our X at http://twitter.com/WWIIMovieNight
This week, we talk about Anthropic's new AI agent, cloud exits, and why BMC is splitting up. Plus, a quick update on the WordPress drama and some thoughts on Amsterdam's autumn weather. 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(https://arstechnica.com/security/2024/10/ai-chatbots-can-read-and-write-invisible-text-creating-an-ideal-covert-channel/) Tesla Caught Using a Lazy Video Editing Trick to Make Its "Autonomous" Robots Look More Capable (https://futurism.com/the-byte/tesla-sped-up-video-optimus-robots) How Google is changing to compete with ChatGPT (https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/18/24273748/google-deepmind-gemini-search-chaptgpt-meta-ai-interview) Perplexity is reportedly looking to fundraise at an $8B valuation (https://techcrunch.com/2024/10/20/perplexity-is-reportedly-looking-to-fundraise-at-an-8b-valuation/) Sophos to Acquire Secureworks to Accelerate Cybersecurity Services and Technology for Organizations Worldwide (https://www.secureworks.com/about/press/sophos-to-acquire-secureworks) Chick-fil-A is releasing its own entertainment app, with family-friendly shows and podcasts (https://www.cnbc.com/2024/10/21/chick-fil-a-to-release-entertainment-app-play-with-shows-and-podcasts.html) Passwords have problems, but passkeys have more (https://world.hey.com/dhh/passwords-have-problems-but-passkeys-have-more-95285df9) Foursquare is killing its city guide app to focus on the check-in app Swarm (https://www.engadget.com/social-media/foursquare-is-killing-its-city-guide-app-to-focus-on-the-check-in-app-swarm-191054153.html) Citi reaps rewards from modernization investments (https://www.ciodive.com/news/citi-bank-digital-transformation-returns-cloud-legacy-applications/729929/) Comic Sans Got the Last Laugh (https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/10/comic-sans-debate/680319/?gift=201cWZnM2XBz2eP81zy0pGR9oxa-0Q1yRNNAyEiZV9s&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share) How Wiz Became the Fastest Software Company to Hit $500M & Its Path to $1B (https://softwareanalyst.substack.com/p/the-wiz-playbook-how-they-dominated) In a global first, quantum computers crack RSA and AES data encryption (https://www.thebrighterside.news/post/in-a-global-first-quantum-computers-crack-rsa-and-aes-data-encryption/) Google Executive Overseeing Search and Advertising Leaves Role (https://www.wsj.com/tech/google-executive-overseeing-search-and-advertising-leaves-role-7aaa7906) Google replaces executive in charge of Search and advertising (https://techcrunch.com/2024/10/17/google-replaces-executive-in-charge-of-search-and-advertising/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAADaAH8SfXbYvJfExfrdTBCk3FQFLK5Tq4uwcyTdvNqH_if1EMb7BiTaIutkBk7E_gi_XolToB8zShW4zMyhXnB3msBJgykhphfBnPzeDtrLww3XP-wNSyUDOl5UIOKZayfYH4AiVuRcNK835OQmS1p-grIHDeizDm3nlSEB9e55j) Concerns Raised Over Bitwarden Moving Further Away From Open-Source (https://www.phoronix.com/news/Bitwarden-Open-Source-Concerns) Intel and AMD are unlikely allies in new x86 ecosystem advisory group – "we'll remain fierce competitors" (https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cpus/intel-and-amd-forge-x86-ecosystem-advisory-group-that-aims-to-ensure-a-unified-isa-moving-forward) The RVA23 profile is now ratified, so RISC-V gets satisfied (https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/23/rva23_profile_ratified/) Twitter users flock to Bluesky as 500,000 join in a day amid controversial blocking changes (https://www.financialexpress.com/life/technology-twitter-users-flock-to-bluesky-as-500000-join-in-a-day-amid-controversial-blocking-changes-3643898/) Nvidia's Blackwell AI Processors Are Sold Out For Next 12 Months (https://www.investors.com/news/technology/nvidia-stock-nvda-blackwell-on-schedule/) Announcing Amazon ElastiCache for Valkey - AWS (https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2024/10/amazon-elasticache-valkey/) Nonsense What the Waffle House Index says about Hurricane Milton (https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/what-the-waffle-house-index-says-about-hurricane-milton) Waffle House (@WaffleHouse) on X (https://x.com/WaffleHouse/status/1844438764547932507) The Hustlers Who Make $6,000 a Month by Gaming Citi Bikes (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/19/nyregion/citi-bike-scam-nyc.html?unlocked_article_code=1.RE4.D83k.4gVrI1ujtLw4&smid=url-share) The VW ID. Buzz was worth the seven-year wait (https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/10/driving-the-2025-vw-id-buzz-was-worth-the-seven-year-wait/) Listener Feedback World's Largest Buffalo Monument (https://discoverjamestownnd.com/fun-things-to-do-in-jamestown-nd/all-things-buffalo/worlds-largest-buffalo-monument/) 20+ of Canada's Largest Roadside Attractions (https://www.readersdigest.ca/travel/canada/canadas-10-biggest-things/) Our big things vs their big things (https://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/our-big-things-vs-their-big-things/HXA3VDO7GFRWPH3WJ2MXX3JRD4/) Conferences VMware Explore Barcelona (https://www.vmware.com/explore/eu), Nov 4-7, 2024, Coté speaking. GoTech World (https://www.gotech.world/), Bucharest, Nov 12- 13, 2204, Coté speaking. SREday Amsterdam (https://sreday.com/2024-amsterdam/), Nov 21, 2024, Coté speaking (https://sreday.com/2024-amsterdam/Michael_Cote_VMwarePivotal_We_Fear_Change), 20% off with code SRE20DAY DevOpsDayLA (https://www.socallinuxexpo.org/scale/22x/events/devopsday-la) at SCALE22x (https://www.socallinuxexpo.org/scale/22x), March 6-9, 2025, discount code DEVOP SDT News & Community Join our Slack community (https://softwaredefinedtalk.slack.com/join/shared_invite/zt-1hn55iv5d-UTfN7mVX1D9D5ExRt3ZJYQ#/shared-invite/email) Email the show: questions@softwaredefinedtalk.com (mailto:questions@softwaredefinedtalk.com) Free stickers: Email your address to stickers@softwaredefinedtalk.com (mailto:stickers@softwaredefinedtalk.com) Follow us on social media: Twitter (https://twitter.com/softwaredeftalk), Threads (https://www.threads.net/@softwaredefinedtalk), Mastodon (https://hachyderm.io/@softwaredefinedtalk), LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/software-defined-talk/), BlueSky (https://bsky.app/profile/softwaredefinedtalk.com) Watch us on: Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/sdtpodcast), YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi3OJPV6h9tp-hbsGBLGsDQ/featured), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/softwaredefinedtalk/), TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@softwaredefinedtalk) Book offer: Use code SDT for $20 off "Digital WTF" by Coté (https://leanpub.com/digitalwtf/c/sdt) Sponsor the show (https://www.softwaredefinedtalk.com/ads): ads@softwaredefinedtalk.com (mailto:ads@softwaredefinedtalk.com) Recommendations Brandon: Tailscale (https://tailscale.com) Ozlo Sleepbuds hands-on: resurrected and I've slept so good (https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/22/24275875/ozlo-sleepbuds-hands-on-bose-wearables-sleep-tracking) Coté: Hire Caleb (https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7250088425121267713/) Marques (https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7250088425121267713/) as an Cybersecurity Intern (Coté's N (https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7250088425121267713/)ephew (https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7250088425121267713/)) (https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7250088425121267713/) (https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7250088425121267713/) What Artists Wear (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58999216-what-artists-wear), Charlie Porter (much better cover on Penguin edition (https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/314590/what-artists-wear-by-porter-charlie/9780141991252)) Photo Credits Header (https://unsplash.com/photos/conjunction-bridge-under-white-sky-1JWmFju8vVg) Artwork (https://unsplash.com/photos/black-and-white-robot-toy-on-red-wooden-table-zwd435-ewb4)
With the holidays coming, are you preparing any farm promotions to finish Q4 strong? If not, this episode is for you. I've invited my friend Christina Marbury (the marketing director of Taste the Local Difference -- a marketing agency for farmers) to share her expertise in building holiday promotions that sell. Christina has the advantage of working with hundreds of farms across the Midwest on their marketing strategy, and she has seen the types of offers that work well for the Thanksgiving/Christmas seasons. Your consumer is "trained" to buy this time of year. Between gift giving and the big three holiday feasts (Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years), there is ample opportunity for farms to pitch their products. In this episode, Christina will share what types of products and offers work well for this time of year. She also gives tips on how to set up your online store so that more people will buy those offers. AND, we talk through some marketing pointers so that your customers find out about those great offers living on your e-commerce platform. My challenge for you is to listen to the episode with your key decision makers and then brainstorm a holiday offer (or two!) that you will pitch this season. Let us know how it goes! Who is Christina Marbury? Marketing Director at Taste the Local Difference At Taste the Local Difference, Christina and her team support farms and other local food businesses to reach their goals with specialized marketing services designed just for those businesses. From website design and e-commerce system setup to graphic design to strategies and implementation for social media, email marketing and search engine optimization, TLD aims to make marketing work efficiently and effectively. Christina fell in love with local food while attending the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and has since spent her career working with and supporting local food businesses of all types. From farm work to bakeries, retail, and food service - she's been in the thick of it, which brings an understanding of these businesses to her work in marketing. When Christina isn't working, you can find her in her garden, boiling maple syrup, baking up a storm, and soaking in the incredible waters and landscapes near her home in Leelanau County, Michigan. Podcast Sponsor: This podcast was sponsored by Local Line, my preferred e-commerce platform for farmers. Are you looking for a new solution for your farm? I can't recommend it enough. Easy to use inventory management, great customer service, continuous improvement, and a culture dedicated to equipping farmers with marketing expertise, Local Line should definitely be one of the e-commerce solutions you consider as you switch. Local Line is offering a free premium feature for free for one year on top of your paid subscription. Claim your discount by signing up for a Local Line account today and using the coupon code: MDF2024. Head to my special affiliate link to get started: www.mydigitalfarmer.com/localline Some of the resources mentioned in this episode: Join my free email list! I have a great "Crash Course in farm marketing" that will guide you through the marketing jungle over the course of several months. Each week, you'll get a new email with suggestions and tips to make your marketing better. Subscribe at https://www.mydigitalfarmer.com/subscribe Download the Guide we mention in this episode: E-Commerce Optimization for Farms here. It's an overview of the key elements of this episode, put together by Christina for you! Farm Marketing School - my monthly online marketing school membership just for farmers. Farm Marketing School is an on-demand library of marketing workshops and project plans that will help you build some of the most important parts of your marketing system: building a promotion calendar, setting up your Google Business Profile, auditing your sales funnel, updating your home page of your website, building your first email nurture sequence, acquiring and deploying testimonials, writing great weekly email promotions, nurture emails, onboarding emails, and practicing different types of offers. You get to chose what you want to study and build each month. These projects are designed to be completed in under 30 days, so that you slowly build your marketing system piece by piece. Use the step by step project planner and resource folder to help you jumpstart your work. Take advantage of my new marketing crash course inside or take the onboarding assessment tool to help you identify where your funnel is broken and what project to do first. To see what courses are currently inside of FMS, or to try out Farm Marketing School for a month at mydigitalfarmer.com/fms Start and cancel your membership anytime. Early Bird Campaigns that Convert -- In this week's episode, I mentioned that I am currently in my final week of the CSA this season. In fact, I'm in the middle of my "early renewal promotion" to get my CSA members to sign up again. IF you want to learn my system for how I do this every year, I offer my step by step online course to help you get it done. This course will teach you how to build a compelling offer that gets your current members to decide to renew during your promo campaign. I show you the emails to write, the posts to create, and the ENERGY you need to generate in the week before you launch. Find my marketing Facebook group for CSA farmers!You'll find my video trainings for the Early Bird Challenge inside here for a few more days. Follow me on Instagram for a daily IG story tip on marketing! @mydigitalfarmer Subscribe and Review in Apple Podcast I'd love for you to subscribe to my podcast! I don't want you to miss an episode. Click here to subscribe in Apple Podcasts!
Go Time co-host, Johnny Boursiquot, joins Adam & Jerod to discuss not making the (first) cut, applying Founder Mode, being a cog (or not), realizing that companies are posting fake engineering jobs & the (maybe) imminent demise of the .io TLD.
Pierce Brown talks about signing with Yamaha Star Racing, being scared to sign with Bobby in the past, learning of TLD's departure in '25, and more.
NIST has finally proposed some sensible password standards, why server CPUs with high core counts make sense in a lot of deployments, the .io TLD is probably sticking around, and the best options for a Linux-based router. Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes Klara Halloween […]
NIST has finally proposed some sensible password standards, why server CPUs with high core counts make sense in a lot of deployments, the .io TLD is probably sticking around, and the best options for a Linux-based router. Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes Klara Halloween... Read More
In this episode we discuss our new TLD .DFZ with the Deadfellaz team and our COO of Unstoppable Domains, Sandy Carter!
How can you use email to build customer relationships and get more sales as a small farmer? In today's episode, Erika Tebbens returns to the show to talk to us about email marketing. Erika is passionate about relationship-driven, connection-centered sales and marketing practices; and loves being a catalyst for micro enterprises to thrive. She has been running & supporting businesses of all kinds and sizes for 20 years now, from solo-operations to multimillion-dollar companies with teams. Over those two decades she has served hundreds of clients, helping them develop business strategies in alignment with their values. Today you'll learn how Erika tackles email marketing for farm businesses! Episode Highlights: Strategy: Why would farmers want to do email marketing? [3:28] Starting Out: How would you go about getting folks on your email marketing list? [8:39] Choosing Platforms: What platforms does Erika use for hosting emails? [16:18] Frequency: How should you approach email scheduling? [19:53] Writing: How can you craft compelling content for your emails? [30:21] Outcome: How can you construct a clear CTA? [38:22] About the Guest: Erika Tebbens is the Director of Impact at Taste the Local Difference. Taste the Local Difference is a woman-owned and woman-led local food marketing agency for purpose-driven food and farm businesses. While businesses can hire Taste the Local Difference directly, one thing that sets them apart are their Impact Partnerships, which Erika oversees. By partnering with economic development agencies, nonprofits, schools, health departments, farmers markets, food-system support organizations, state agencies, federal programs, and more across the U.S., they help expand the impact local food can have both for producers and consumers. Before joining TLD, Erika spent a decade working with entrepreneurs on their sales and growth strategy, and she used to have a very small farm and apiary in upstate New York. Learn More About Taste the Local Difference: Website: localfoodmarketing.com Instagram: @localfoodmarketing Facebook: @localdifference The Thriving Farmer Podcast Team would like to thank our amazing sponsor! Do you have more tasks on your farm than you have time? Stop interruptions and focus on what matters most. Delegate repetitive duties in your tunnel to Orisha. Sleep better, knowing that they'll call you if anything goes wrong in your greenhouse. Be sure to check out their ebook with helpful tips to reduce your workload and simplify your days on the farm. Download the ebook here. Learn more about Orisha, including their popular leasing options with no upfront costs on orisha.io Join the upcoming event: This year's Midwest Mechanical Weed Control Field Day, organized by Sam Tilton, is September 11th in Lafayette Indiana at Purdue University! Listen to the episode for more details. This is THE event to see weeding tools and machinery for farms of all sizes for vegetables and row crops (hand tools, two-wheel tractors, up to camera-guided row crop cultivators). The event includes a trade show, educational sessions, and field demonstrations. Click here to register!
Tonight we will talk about our recent video with the Agilite Magnetix Belt loadout video. Plus episode 15 of Everyman's Arsenal where Jason had a chance to interview Lev from Agilite. This weeks video: https://youtu.be/5ddo32F5ByQ The post Live with TLD 167 – Agilite Magnetix Belt Loadout plus TLD SWAG giveaway appeared first on Firearms Radio Network.
In this episode our Unstoppable COO Sandy Carter discusses all things regarding our new TLD .KRYPTIC and onchain domains with the team from Kryptic
In this episode our Unstoppable COO Sandy Carter discusses all things related to our new TLD .UBU and onchain domains with the Africarare team!
Tonight we will talk about our recent video with Walsh and Cody shooting out to 1 Mile This weeks video: The post Live with TLD 166 – Shooting out to 1 Mile appeared first on Firearms Radio Network.
Apple vs U.S. DoJ G.M.'s Unbelievably Horrible Driver Data Sharing Ends Super Sushi Samurai Apple has effectively abandoned HomeKit Secure Routers The forthcoming ".INTERNAL" TLD The United Nations vs AI. Telegram now blocked throughout Spain Vancouver Pwn2Own 2024 China warns of incoming hacks Annual Tax Season Phishing Deluge SpinRite update Authentication without a phone Are Passkeys quantum safe? GoFetch: The Unpatchable vulnerability in Apple chips Show Notes - https://www.grc.com/sn/SN-967-Notes.pdf Hosts: Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/security-now. Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit You can submit a question to Security Now at the GRC Feedback Page. For 16kbps versions, transcripts, and notes (including fixes), visit Steve's site: grc.com, also the home of the best disk maintenance and recovery utility ever written Spinrite 6. Sponsors: zscaler.com/zerotrustAI bitwarden.com/twit canary.tools/twit - use code: TWIT panoptica.app kolide.com/securitynow