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David Kim is the author of Scuttleblurb (now also on Substack! More on that new development in the podcast).This is the third time I have interviewed David — he's that interesting! For more context, you can find the previous two interviews linked below.In this one, David shares his journey as an investor, talks about how Scuttleblurb started and how it's doing these days, and who inspired him to get started (if Scuttleblurb is the grand-daddy of a lot of current ‘deep dive' newsletters, who's the great-grand-daddy?).It's a two-way conversation, so we also talk about what I'm doing.We also touch on some businesses: Carvana (
⬇️. ⬇️. ⬇️. Manage 75 Staff? No Way! Interview with Edwin Williams, MD (Ep.139) Hello and welcome to this episode of Beauty and the Biz with Edwin Williams, MD. Very few surgeons understand the business side of plastic surgery like Dr. Williams, so I had him on Beauty and the Biz to share his pearls. He's a facial plastic surgeon in private practice in upstate New York in a cute town called Latham in Albany which happens to be the capital of NY. He has grown his multi-specialty practice in a 22K square foot facility with 7 surgeons, 75 staff, a surgical center, hair center and medspa. Listen in as Dr. Williams shares his business acumen that helped him grow an 8-figure practice with lots of moving parts. Even if you have no aspirations for such growth, you'll get the fundamentals needed for any size practice. This is a “must hear” if you struggle with inconsistent revenues, staff issues that keep you up at night and you're bordering on burnout from being the surgeon, manager, marketer and all the other hats you wear. Visit Dr. Williams' website P.S. Can you please leave a quick review at Apple Podcasts? Just click the link HERE If you want to talk more about your specific situation, just leave me a message at https://www.CatherineMaley.com, or DM me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/CatherineMaleyMBA.
In this week's episode, Stefania tells Laura the story of RUTH BADER GINSBURG, a lawyer, professor, judge, and steadfast pioneer in the fight for gender equality under the law. She was the co-founder of the Women's Rights Project at the ACLU, and later spent 10 years on the U.S. Court of Appeals. In 1993, she became the second woman and 107th U.S. Supreme Court Justice, serving 27 years on the bench. Her unrelenting devotion to the pursuit of constitutional gender equality earned her the moniker: “the great dissenter” reading aloud from the bench, attempting to redirect the court's path, get the attention of congress, and address the courts of the future. This led her to become a legal and cultural phenomenon, with yet another moniker: “The Notorious RBG”. Born: March 15, 1933, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A.; Died: September 18, 2020, Washington, D.C., U.S.A. EPISODE SOURCES: Carlson, Margaret. “A Legal Giant.” TIME Magazine Commemorative Edition, 1 Jan. 2021, pp. 4-9. Clinton, President Bill. “A Justice for All.” TIME Magazine Commemorative Edition, 1 Jan. 2021, pp. 10-11. De Hart, Jane Sherron. “The Girl from Brooklyn.” TIME Magazine Commemorative Edition, 1 Jan. 2021, pp. 20-27. Carmon, Irin and Knizhnik, Shana. “The ACLU Years.” TIME Magazine Commemorative Edition, 1 Jan. 2021, pp. 28-35. Carlson, Margaret. “Joining the Court.” TIME Magazine Commemorative Edition, 1 Jan. 2021, pp. 38-43. Jerome, Richard. “Fit to Serve.” TIME Magazine Commemorative Edition, 1 Jan. 2021, pp. 44-49. Dalenberg, Alex. “A Case for Fair Pay.” TIME Magazine Commemorative Edition, 1 Jan. 2021, pp 50-55. Hirshman, Linda. “Women of the Court.” TIME Magazine Commemorative Edition, 1 Jan. 2021, pp. 56-59. Isaacson, Walter, President, Aspen Institute. “Unlikely Pair.” TIME Magazine Commemorative Edition, 1 Jan. 2021, pp. 60-63. Lipton, Lauren. “Life With Marty.” TIME Magazine Commemorative Edition, 1 Jan. 2021, pp. 64-71. Daspin, Eileen. “Pop Icon.” TIME Magazine Commemorative Edition, 1 Jan. 2021, pp. 72-79. Carmon, Irin and Knizhnik, Shana. Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Dey Street Books, an Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. 27 Oct. 2015 RBG. Directed by Julie Cohen and Betsy West, Performance by Ruth Bader Ginsburg, CNN Films, 2018. Netflix. www.netflix.com/search?q=rbg&jbv=80240086. Haridasani Gupta, Alisha. “Why Ruth Bader Ginsburg Wasn't All That Fond of Roe v. Wade”, The New York Times, Sept. 21, 2020. www.nytimes.com/2020/09/21/us/ruth-bader-ginsburg-roe-v-wade.html. Ritschel, Chelsea. “10 Quotes That Sum Up Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Thoughts on Marriage and Relationships”, The Independent, Sept. 26, 2020. www.independent.co.uk/life-style/ruth-bader-ginsburg-marriage-martin-quotes-equality-children-b533470.html Newkirk II, Vann R. “How Shelby County v. Holder Broke America”, The Atlantic, July 10, 2018. www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/07/how-shelby-county-broke-america/564707/ Foussianes, Chloe. “How Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Late Husband, Marty, Helped Her Reach Her Potential”, Town & Country, Sept. 19, 2020. www.townandcountrymag.com/society/money-and-power/a26292252/ruth-bader-ginsburg-martin-husband-love-story-rbg/ Neier, Aryeh. “How Ruth Bader Ginsburg Got Her Start at the ACLU”, ACLU, Sept. 25, 2020. www.aclu.org/news/civil-liberties/how-ruth-bader-ginsburg-got-her-start-at-the-aclu/ Hockenberry, John. “Transcript: Interview with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg”, The Takeaway, WNYC Studios, Sept. 15, 2013. www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/takeaway/segments/transcript-interview-justice-ruth-bader-ginsburg YOUTUBE VIDEOS: Legally Speaking: Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Hastings College of the Law, University of California Television, Nov. 3, 2011. www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA5KTkCGTWo&t=2851s A Conversation with Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The Aspen Institute. July 10, 2010. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukGH4uv7XFM Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg rare interview: ‘It's not the best of times' . BBC Newsnight. Feb. 23, 2017. www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQzClRA2QLM CASES CITED: Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt, 579 U.S. ___ (2016). www.oyez.org/cases/2015/15-274 Frontiero v. Richardson, 411 U.S. 677 (1973). www.oyez.org/cases/1972/71-1694 Additional Websites Sources: Rutgers Law. Women's Rights Law Reporter. womensrightslawreporter.com/about-us/ Pullman, Sandra. TRIBUTE: THE LEGACY OF RUTH BADER GINSBURG AND WRP STAFF. www.aclu.org/other/tribute-legacy-ruth-bader-ginsburg-and-wrp-staff
Most of us rely on insurance. But when you suffer a Medical Emergency on an RV Trip, that insurance may not be adequate, especially if you need a land or air ambulance. In fact, many of those air and ambulance costs claims are rejected by the insurance companies, even if the transport was called by EMTs or the hospital. It's a giant loophole that is particularly important for RVers to know about because they often find themselves in remote locations where hospitals can be few and far apart. In RV Podcast Episode 333, we learn the startling high percentage of ambulance runs that are rejected by insurance companies and the catastrophically high costs for emergency air ambulance that also go uncovered by insurers. You can listen to the entire podcast episode in the player below, or go about 20 minutes in to hear the interview. Or scroll down and keep reading this post for a full transcript of the interview. Our guest is Tim Gustafson, who runs an outfit called the Medical Air Service Association (MASA) which offers a special program to cover those 100% of those ambulance costs. I met Tim a couple of weeks ago and after hearing some of the horror stories that RVers have had because of uncovered ambulance fees, I thought his information would be of great interest to RVers. Transcript: Interview about ambulance costs related to a Medical Emergency on an RV Trip Mike Wendland: Joining us now to talk about these issues is Tim Gustafson. Tim is with a group called MASA, for Medical Air Services Association. I met Tim a week or so ago, and we were talking about some of the issues that RVers encounter when medical emergencies happen on the road. He had some pretty scary stories to relate to me that I in turn want to relate to you. So Tim, thank you for agreeing to come on the program and talk about some of this stuff. Tim Gustafson: Well Mike, thank you so much for having me. Mike Wendland: So let's talk a little bit about a lot of us think that if something happens on the road, we're all covered with all the different insurances. Walk through some of the scenarios that we need to understand about ambulances, whether it's emergency air ambulances or even ground ambulances. When an air or land ambulance is called during a Medical Emergency on an RV Trip Tim Gustafson: Yeah. I've been an insurance broker for 16 years or so now. What that means is that I work for my clients, but I represent about 90 different insurance companies. One of the biggest gaps that I see is ambulance coverage, by ground or by air. Statistically, there's roughly three and a half million ground ambulance runs per year, and one out of seven is just outright denied, because it's not up to you, it's not up to the EMT to determine whether it's medically necessary. They have some heartless dorks sitting behind a desk at a home office and an insurance company to decide if it's medically necessary or not. So 14%, roughly one out of seven get denied. Most health insurance plans do not cover emergency transportation The denials by air ambulances are far greater than that. Denial rates are through the roof really, because air ambulances are not considered a medical expense due to the Deregulation Act of 1978. They're actually classified as a common carrier so they can just charge whatever they want whenever they want. The Department of Insurance, Medicare, Medicaid services, any insurance company, they have about as much influence over the pricing as they do over Southwest or Delta Airlines. Mike Wendland: Give us an example. The costs of an air ambulance during a Medical Emergency on an RV Trip Tim Gustafson: I had some great clients that were taking their RVup to Alaska in the summer of 2019. They got just North of the Washington border and the husband ended up having a heart attack. So they called 911, which is the number you call if you're in Canada, by the way. I didn't know that.
On this episode of Common Mystics Jennifer and Jill interview the amazing Denise Correll. Denise is a teacher with a background in special education and educational leadership. Yet, she is also a gifted empath, professional psychic medium and cohost of the Enlightened Empaths podcast. How did she find her path into the mystical realm? What wisdom does she have for those beginning their own psychic journeys? Listen in now for her pearls of wisdom. Find out more about Denise Correll at www.thegratefulmessenger.com. Finally, check out the Enlightened Empaths podcast for much more mystical wisdom. Transcripts of this episode can be found here: Transcript_ Interview with Denise Correll Link not working? Find transcripts to our pods and more at https://commonmystics.net/ Thanks for listening! Support us on Patreon and get exclusive bonus content and monthly video calls with Jen & Jill!!! https://www.patreon.com/commonmystics
Dr Louise Pendry of Exeter University talk to Ceri Wheeldon of Fab after Fifty on how we are influenced by stereotypes of ageing, and how our impressions of ageing are formed from a very young age.Her new book Grandmas Can't Trampoline is written for young girls , to help combat the normal stereotypes they already have when it comes to negative perceptions of ageing.Although written for children - the book has been well received by adults.A lively discussion on a topic that affects us all! A full transcript is available on the next page----more----Transcript: Interview with Dr Louise Pendry on Challenging Perceptions of Age and her New Book Grandmas Can't Trampoline [00:01:08] Hello. And today, I'm so pleased to have with me my guest, Dr. Louis Pendry, who is a senior lecturer in psychology at Exeter University, and who specializes in stereotyping and prejudice. Hello, Louise, and welcome to the podcast. [00:01:23] Hello and thank you very much for having me. [00:01:26] Can you expand a little bit on the sort of a study that you do and the lectures that you give, [00:01:34] Well, over the years, I have been looking at a general topic of stereotyping and prejudice, and it was the subject of my p_h_d_ many years ago. Now I'm looking at when people stereotype, why they stereotype and how to overcome stereotyping. And over the years, I've done that looking at lots of different stereotype groups. So things to do with gender, ethnicity, age to some extent. But I think it's only in the last few years as I've got older myself that I've started to focus in a little bit more specifically on the issues around ageism and age stereotyping. And I think because I've just recently hit 50 myself, it's just become a topic of interest to me at a personal level as well as at an academic level. So now I've refined my teaching somewhat and then I'm moving more towards teaching a little bit more on the issues around getting older and the positives, the negatives around getting older and what we can all do to age positively and well, I suppose. And just understanding that the issues that my students who are only age 18 are facing already with a negative view of an age that they've kind of grown up in internalized over many years. And that's the sort of dialogue that I want to have with them right now.[00:00:02] I understand Louise that you've just written a book which has just been published. [00:00:12] I have, a bit of a departure for me, although I do quite like writing in my job as an academic. This is a children's book, which is nothing like I've ever done before. So it's just coming out this month. Basically,it's available. Why did you decide to write a book for children. Well, that's a good question. So it's something I haven't ever done before. I think it's come out of the fact that I'm having conversations with my students. Obviously, they're not children. They are 18 plus increasingly about getting older and ageism and age stereotyping, prejudice, a very big part of what I teach and research and what becomes apparent when I talk to my students and I notice from the research anyway, is that even at that tender age, they have already got a negative perception about getting older. And it's it's mainly because that's the way we've been brought up. It's we internalize these negative stereotypes because ageism is everywhere in our environment. It's there every time we walk down the greetings card on our local supermarket. And we see that the milestone birthday cards that are just having a pop at how dreadful is to get old or every time we see anti-aging language being used to advertising market products that hold back the years and banish those wrinkles or just the way that older people are represented in TV and film, that somehow being I guess invisible or frail or just mattering less than when they were younger. And my students acknowledge and we discuss that they've already internalized all of these negative stereotypes without necessarily wanting to. It's just part and parcel of what they've been exposed to. So what I wanted to do was go go even further back and talk to an even younger audience, because I'm aware that kids, even as young as 6 have quite negative views about growing old. [00:01:57] And I find that amazing that even though they've already formed those views, yes, it is quite shocking. [00:02:04] But there is definitely research out there to support that, that essentially it's not great to get old. You know, it's become boring, frail, grumpy, ugly, afraid of change. And we just don't matter as much. And these sorts of negative perceptions are. Yeah, they are they are found even in our younger people. So I think what I wanted to do was to create a story where a little girl was going to experience contact with an older person and watch and track the relationship that develops with that with that older person. And also not just that person, just not not one person on her own. It's her grandmother, but also all the other people that she gets exposed to during a trip where she could go. She goes abroad and spend some time with her grandmother and the people that she's exposed to, all different kinds of people. And I think one of the things that I'm really keen to dispel is this notion that there's a kind of homogeneity, a similarity about all people, that they are all the same and probably not very positively, all the same as well. So in the book, there are different characters and there are different points of view made. Whilst the grandmother character, Nancy, is a very feisty WOKE kind of woman who's physically very active seems to be quite fit. She's also very well aware of the fact that that is not the case for everybody. And so she puts the points of view of all different kinds of age of age people in the conversations that we had. [00:03:31] She has a Nancy causing it to just question the degree to which. We don't necessarily think about variety in older people and some of the isolation and loneliness affects older people. Is it brought out in the book? So it is definitely it's not painting at a universally happy, positive view of getting older. I like to think it's tinged with the reality that there are many different ways that we grow old and not show positive, but we can have a sense of agency about some of the ways that we do grow old. And there are things that we can do to make our aging processes as good as they can be, I suppose. And that's the story that I want to tell. And it's through the eyes of a little girl. So it's very much tracking the shift in her own perceptions because she starts out extremely negative about the whole prospect of spending summer with her grandmother and her elderly friends. And by the end, she comes home having had a quite a conversion experience and realizing that actually the older people can be every bit as varied as younger people and as much to like about them as well. And so we have much more in common with them than we don't have in common with them. It's just about finding that overlap and finding the things that we can accept are similar and then working on those together. [00:04:44] And that's key, isn't it? The diversity in all of older people and I use the term very loosely. I found certainly when I set up the Fab after Fifty website, I had meetings with all sorts of people who basically lumped everybody 50 into one category and essentially we all sat in rocking chairs and did knitting. Yes. And so with no perception of any sort of individuality or that you can be as different in your 50s, you know, to the person sitting next to you as you were in your 20s and 30s. [00:05:14] Exactly. Exactly. And I think one of the images that one of my students shows, because they do presentations on this topic in my seminar, they showed this image of the different ages of life kind of thing. And so you had the toddler, the young child, the teenager, the student, the mum, the career person. And then there was just one person to represent the older person, the older woman. And it was a frail person with grey hair bent over using a walking stick. And it's almost like when you get to that stage, there is only one portrayal and it's going to be stereotypical. And so this book is about challenging those stereotypes and allowing an understanding of diversity in older people that I think is often missing and in so much of what we see in society. [00:05:59] Yes. I mean, and I stress in my workplace discussions that, again, you can have a really ambitious 60 year old, but equally, you could have a less ambitious 22 year old. Exactly. And I was just just very sort of drivers in that respect. [00:06:17] No, I think the stereotype suggests that that they do. But of course, that that that's what the stereotype is. It's an overgeneralization. And within each of those age groups, there will be variety. And it's just important to notice that variety and not to gloss over it and just assume, because I think stereotypes are an easier way of getting about life. You know, if we can just assume people are the same, then life is much easier. We haven't got to make allowances for people being different. We can just make judgments based on the fact that they're probably going to not like to be very active. For example, they're probably not going to go out very much. And all of these things just makes life easier. We like to be able to predict our environment stereotypes do that for us, but obviously not all very successfully when they gloss over individual differences that are what make older people unique. [00:07:02] Actually, I came under criticism by some initially. I didn't say my parents very often. I like that so well. Why don't you make time for them? There's not that. They haven't got time for me. I had to catch them between cruises, between been golfing trips, between bridge nights, between running photography classes. I mean, they do so much. It's not that I haven't got time for them that they just making the most of every single day that they have. [00:07:27] Yes. And I think there are many more people doing that than it used to be the case. And the more that can be done to show that variety is going to be helpful. But if my parents are exactly the same, that never in the same country for more than a few weeks at a time, it seemed to me in their later life. Yes. [00:07:42] Why do you think that youth is perceived as positive and being older. It's perceived as negative. [00:07:50] Well, we are conditioned to prefer everything that is youthful, and it's just everything that's around us. So sells youth as a time of positivity, a sign of possibility, I suppose. I think the correlates of being probably in better health then when we;re older in which to some extent may be true, that's not be universally positive about the fact that there are certain health issues that are more likely to happen to us as we get older. But basically youth is portrayed as everything that growing older isn't. So it's a time of thriving rather than receding and failing. And that's got to be a more, more appealing sell, I suppose for people. They are. They're not going to want to go for the one that talks about failing to thrive. They want to go from one that's talking about thriving. So it's and it's just everywhere. We reward youth. You know, in the workplace, while you're rewarded for doing odd jobs and getting on at a younger age and being ambitious and the perception that as we get older, these sorts of things sort of fall away. Not necessarily true at all. But these are the sorts of things that we are just conditioned to think. [00:08:53] That's how the world is. [00:08:55] And what sort of reaction are you getting so far,I know the book has not been available to buy yet. But in terms of people who read the proofs, etcetera, or pre-publication copy. What sort of reaction are you getting? [00:09:09] Well, it's it's interesting, actually. Certainly, I've had a number of kids and adults read and comment on drafts as it's been going through the phase of creation process. And I certainly think the market, the target market seems to be younger girls, probably eight to eleven, sort of pre secondary school age because the protagonist is just on the cusp of going to secondary school herself. And so I think from that perspective and it's a little girl that's something that's going to appeal to that market is a gentle story, but it's quite a powerful story about a relationship. What's become apparent is having had a number of adults read it to male and female is the women in particular are saying that it's really making them think about how we're all complicit in our own ageism. And they're really enjoying this understanding of ageing as a more positive process and that there are benefits that can accrue as we get older. And so many of us, we just we get lost because we are conditioned to not think that's the case. And just having a moment to reflect and to talk, have conversations with your children about these sorts of issues is really important. Men who've read it have said it's because it's not just about the experiences of an older woman. There are men characters in the book as well. They have also said they're finding it really, really perception shifting, if you like, in terms of making them think more about the variety of what it is to be elderly. So I think I think understanding that ageism, which I think in the words of Todd Nelson is prejudiced towards our feared future selves is something that we are all complicit in. And realising as they read this book that they hadn't necessarily thought about that, but they are, too. It's really unhelpful to have that negative attitude. So I'm really keen to target the kids. But I also think that the parents and the grandparents will find this book helpful as well. [00:11:06] So it sounds like a really lovely book that perhaps know grandparents and grandchildren could read together. [00:11:12] That's exactly how I see it. I think I would love to be the case. And I've got a number of people who have read the drafts and have said right, that's it, I'm buying it for my for my granddaughter because I want to read it with her. And I want to have this conversation about what it's really like to get older and and just to kind of understand also that stereotypes can change. And the fact that we have internalized these negative views, it doesn't mean it's set in stone and that we can challenge them unthinkable getting older in a different way. Certainly that's the case of the protagonist in the book, just the little girl. By the end of it, she is a very much more a pro-age activist, I suppose, and wanting to get involved in her her local care home and getting her school friends involved as well, visiting them and doing activities together and just basically realising that it's important to have this intergenerational contact. It really matters. It makes a huge difference for everyone benefit. I think that's the thing as well. It's not just a case of older people benefit younger people and older people benefit from getting together and realizing what makes us unique and celebrating that. [00:12:17] What I have always found interesting is when you meet individuals, they'll say, well. Well, for instance, if I meet somebody in a PR department, they're normally relatively young and we're talking about products or services for women over 50. And they'll say, oh, yes, that my mother wouldn't use this because she's not a typical 50 year old. And I have to say, well, she probably is. So we all know people who aren't the stereotype you perceive and the fact that wasn't it with a group of quite a large number of young women in a marketing department and they all said that their mothers didn't make didn't meet the typical stereotype of a woman in her 50s. I think you've got 15 people here and you will all say your own mothers buck the trend, so to speak. Yeah, it may be that your perception of a stereotype is wrong and it was almost a penny dropping moment. [00:13:14] Yeah, I think we can all think of examples. Depends how extreme those examples are. I mean, sometimes we have got role models,we see our parents, our mums are really, really living life. Like you say, your parents are really embracing life as they've got older. When that's our role model, that's our examples, that's our reference and our stereotypes may be somewhat different, but for many people that isn't the case. And actually, even even when it is, even when we do have those sort of reference points, when they are some extremely disconfirming, a stereotype that's getting older is actually a time of decline. Often what we do is we keep that negative stereotype in tact and we just have these people as exceptions to the rule. So we're quite good at maintaining all stereotypes. What better way to challenge the stereotypes is to start to see role models who are a bit of everything. They're not just necessarily extremely engaged and doing everything. Maybe they're doing a bit of that, but they've also got some more stereotypic stuff. Maybe they sit at home knitting as well. You know, they can be anything really and quite trendy. Yes. Yes, it is true. I knit myself myself. So I think it's just understanding that we can have a very, very skewed perception based on the people that we come into contact with. And that can make it seem that there isn't a problem. I accept that. But equally, we can just retain that sort of perception if we just think that that person is just so atypical and they don't represent what most older people are like. So we've just got to be careful that we don't kind of pigeonhole these exceptions. And just leave our overall stereotype intact. I think this is not going to be a positive way forward. [00:14:51] I'm not sure we've given the name of your book yet. Believe that the title, which I love, by the way, I haven't. [00:14:57] Well, it's called Grandma's Can't Trampoline. And it's it's it's a poignant title because it's very relevant to something that happens within the story. And obviously, the book cover is featuring the little girl and her grandmother on the trampoline. And the little girl is looking somewhat askance at the fact that her grandmother is going quite mad on the trampoline whilst accept the fact thing that not everybody is going to be jumping up or down on the trampoline. I think it's the point of it is just to try and get across that we can be we can be anything that we want to be really. And as long as we are capable of doing these things and we put the motivation, then age shouldn't be a barrier to us. [00:15:35] It's all about saying as you can do anything at any age. [00:15:39] Yes, I think so. And you can you can also not trampoline. I think you were saying that you didn't like trampoline yourself when you're in your twenties, you know. No, I don't. [00:15:58] So, no, I'm not trying to say that everyone should jump on the trampoline. Not. But but the point of it is. Well, as you'll see if you if you read the story. The fact that her grandmother does go on trampoline on a trampoline park is a source of great embarrassment to the little girl, because that's just you. She just you just shouldn't do that because, you know, you're an old person and at the end she ends up going with her to a trampoline park. And it's quite a sort of groundbreaking moment when she realizes that she's embarrassed to be seen with a grandmother, really embarrassed to be seen with a grandmother in a situation, even though she thinks that she's moved on in that context, she just feels, oh, my goodness, my grandmother making an idiot of herself. So it's quite a poignant moment. So, yeah, that's it. That's kind of central story throughout the book that we weave. We finish off at the end, I suppose, without wanting to give too much away. [00:16:53] Now, that sounds really, really interesting. I do hope it goes well. I think people buy the book. [00:17:00] Ok. Well, it's going to be available on Amazon as an e-book or as a paperback. And I think it's £1.99 for the e-book and £6.99 for the paperback. It's also available on the Luli website as well. So just lulu.com. So I'm hoping that people buy it, read it with the kids and feedback would be really, really welcome. [00:17:36] As I said, it's a great book that different generations in the family can read together. [00:17:41] Yes, that's that is my hope that it really is going to make people think about their own prejudices. So it's not just trying to challenge the prejudices of younger people. It's a book that applies to many people. [00:17:53] It could be a good book club suggestion. All I can say. [00:17:56] Yes, I think so. Because of that. Because it is it is obviously it's very, very easy reading. But it's the issues are not easy. The issues are quite challenging. [00:18:06] Well, thank you so much for sharing that with us. Pleasure. Again, the title of the book and your name in full if people want to Google the book and the author. Yeah. [00:18:14] The title of the book is Grandma Can't Trampoline. My name is Louise Pendry. The publisher is Publish Nation. [00:18:23] All right. Well, thank you so much for sharing that today. Good luck. It is very much needed. The earlier we can start challenging those perceptions the better. [00:18:32] Yes, I think so. Absolutely agree. Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity. [00:18:36] You're welcome it's been really interesting to learn all about it. And I hope the book does really well. Thank you. Bye bye. Bye.
Morvareed Salehpour joins us today to discuss the complex legal issues around blockchain technology and cryptocurrency. An attorney and public speaker, Morvareed became interested in the space back in 2012 when she began reading about how cryptocurrency was being used in role-playing games (RPG). As these digital assets gained traction in real-world financial transactions, she started studying the complex jurisdiction, liability, and enforcement challenges of this decentralized technology. Morvareed shares some of her perspectives on how blockchain and cryptocurrency are transforming the legal landscape thanks to the rise in cryptocurrency securities lawsuits. Topics Covered: – How she got started in this space – Biggest legal issues of blockchain technology – Cases now working their way through courts – Case law being developed – How various countries are handling legal challenges – The questions around intellectual property – How can businesses protect themselves – The rise of cryptocurrency lawsuits – How average investors are affected – Top three takeaways – Closing thoughts Questions and Comments? chasingunicorns@gem.co Guest Contact Information Morvareed Salehpour Attorney & Public Speaker https://www.salehpourlaw.com Transcript: Interview with Morvareed Salehpour Interview Recorded On: September 17, 2018 Chitra Ragavan: Welcome to Chasing Unicorns, your portal to the world of cryptocurrency. I’m Chitra Ragavan, Chief Strategy Officer here at Gem. Today’s topic is how blockchain technology and cryptocurrency are disrupting the legal landscape. Joining me is Morvareed Salehpour. She’s a noted attorney and speaker on blockchain technology and cryptocurrency. She’s based here in Los Angeles. Chitra: Welcome, Morvareed. Morvareed Salehpour: Thanks for having me, Chitra. Chitra: Tell us a little about yourself, and how you first became interested in crypto and blockchain legal cases. Morvareed: Sure. So I am a lawyer, and I first learned about the blockchain cryptocurrency space in 2012, 2013. It was a point where it was being used for RPG games as a way to buy virtual beers in virtual bars, and there was a double spend problem at that point, so digital currencies weren’t an actual thing that could be used in business. But I started learning about that in the legal context as people started exploring that as an option for conducting financial transactions and the potential there. So I stayed on top of it and continued to learn more and more about it and started to get more and more involved and working on matters in the legal space that continued to evolve as the double spend problem was resolved, and it became more of a real space that people were transacting business in. Chitra: And what are you finding now are the biggest challenges now in the legal space? Let’s start with blockchain technology before we start exploring cryptocurrency, since blockchain is sort of the rails of cryptocurrency. Morvareed: Yes, so blockchain technology is basically a system that, if it’s true blockchain, it’s decentralized. So in a decentralized system, there are issues with jurisdiction, liability, and enforcement, which are different than when it’s centralized, as a source of business. So, for example, with any type of jurisdictional issues, it could be the case that any location where there is a node physically located for a blockchain - that is a source of jurisdiction. Which means that conflicting laws can apply, and there are issues regarding where you can even bring suit or where you will be brought into court. Chitra: Because this is a global phenomenon. Morvareed: Exactly. It’s an issue that it’s a technology that spans the globe, and there are new issues with that because this is not something that we have dealt with before. Similarly with liability, one feature of blockchain is there is a lot of anonymity with it, so in that kind of situation, if there is a something that goes wrong like an error, or there is a fraud committed on a blockchain transaction, you then have to find issues of who’s held liable. And you may not be able to find the guilty party if there’s a fraud, for example, on a supply chain blockchain where someone has removed a tracker and put it on another product of what was supposed to arrive. How do you find that person? Two, if there’s an error in the transaction because of an error in their code, who do you hold liable in that situation? Is it the developer? Is it the central entity maybe still in control of the blockchain? So these are some of the issues that are being developed on the liability front. Similarly on the enforcement front, those issues arise again when there is a court order that is going to be issued. How do you enforce that on a blockchain where the court may not have jurisdiction over everyone - or may not even be able to logistically enforce that order in any real manner we can think of? Chitra: And this is not just theoretical. You’re actually already starting to see cases working their way up through courts, right? Morvareed: Yes, that’s correct. There are already these cases that are coming down and the case laws starting to develop. So these are all issues that some forethought should be put in by blockchain entrepreneurs and businesses to address some of these issues on the front end in their transactions and their contracts so that when things do go wrong they are put into a position where they have strong arguments for what they want the outcome to be. For example, one case is the case against NANO (RaiBlocks) in the eastern district of New York where there’s a securities violations and fraud class action by a plaintiff who lost money in the BitGrail hack. BitGrail was an Italian cryptocurrency exchange, but the plaintiff has now sued the actual NANO token founders and their company - instead of the cryptocurrency exchange - and one of the reliefs that has been asked for in that case is a court ordered rescue fork. It brings up the issues of all three jurisdiction, liability, and enforcement. Because one, jurisdictionally, how does the court effectuate jurisdiction over people in Italy or people who are part of that blockchain but are not in the U.S.? Two, how does it hold the developers liable. Is that who is going to be held liable in this case - even though they weren’t the ones who committed the theft? Three, how are they going to enforce this rescue fork? Even if they decide to rule in its favor, how are they going to stop everyone from proceeding on the unforked protocol? So that’s something that’s now pending in the courts, and it will be decided probably in another year or so. Chitra: And this also goes to this larger issue. We hear a lot about of these court-ordered rescue forks that may be coming down the pike in years or months, but that kind of almost goes against the very grain of what blockchain technology is supposed to be - kind of this decentralized democratic system of decision-making. Morvareed: Yes - so yes, that’s one of the issues with a true public blockchain. It’s not functional with a lot of our systems that are in place, and it actually creates problems and makes it more complicated for people. So it becomes a situation where one - the governments are not going to promote truly decentralized blockchain. It’ll be more private blockchains or ones with some sort of centralized actor that are going to succeed and supported by the government. In fact, we are already seeing that a lot of the blockchains we are familiar with have centralized actors. Think of bitcoin - they are centralized actors. EOS, they’re centralized actors. Those are the ones that even take off. We don’t see many truly decentralized entities. There was one - you could say maybe DAO was one, but we saw how badly that ended when there was an error in the code, and it went out of control when someone hacked it. Chitra: Talk about that - how that ended and the precedent it helped set. Morvareed: Sure. So one of the issues there was that they had created this entity that was supposed to be decentralized and people were investing Ethereum. Then basically someone hacked it because there was an error in the smart contract code and they were able to take advantage of that vulnerability and take out the funds. That created a situation where Ether had to fork to resolve that problem. So these are some of the issues that are present with a decentralized entity. There’s no central entity to try and stop a hack or to help recover. It has to be something that’s more difficult to address in those kinds of situations. And there are other kinds of cases that are coming down that bear on that realm as well. For example, there’s a big consolidated class action against Tezos for securities violations. A couple of the defendants in that case are Swiss-based entities, and they have tried to file a motion to dismiss to get out of the case based on the fact that they may not be a U.S. entity. There might not be jurisdiction over them. There is not a most convenient forum. You’re applying the SEC rules outside of the country. And the judge actually came up with a very interesting ruling. He denied a lot of the motions to dismiss, and some of the takeaways in that case are that you cannot avoid U.S. law by just structuring entities abroad. Two, the way you format your transaction, you don’t get to, for example, just pick. You don’t automatically get Switzerland even if that is included in your transaction as the subject of jurisdiction when it is a browser wrap agreement rather than a click wrap agreement so that the consumers who are entering in these transactions are not on notice. Three, the judge actually focused on the circumstances of the transaction, which was the contractual terms of the transaction. So where the effects are being felt, how it’s being effectuated, where it’s being effectuated, are more important than necessarily what the contract says. Chitra: And the number-two point, which was the browser versus the click—what was that? Morvareed: So, they basically said that Tezos, the contracts for the token sales in that situation had browser-wrapped agreements basically saying the jurisdiction is Switzerland so basically agreement was assumed. There was nothing putting the person buying the token on notice that this was what the jurisdiction would be, and there was no affirmative action by them to agree to that so it was just a boilerplate assumption of jurisdiction. The court said that doesn’t work in this case. Chitra: So you’re seeing cases in the U.S. and abroad in other countries too. Is everyone grappling with this in different ways? Morvareed: Yes. There are other countries that are stepping up in this space too. There are other countries that even tried to outlaw cryptocurrency. Other states are trying to embrace it, but one of the things to point out is that a lot of people say, “Oh, the U.S. is being very strict. They’re getting involved in the space.” But actually the U.S. is taking a very measured approach, and they have not come out saying you can’t do this. They’re basically saying that these are investment contracts, and you need to comply with securities law. There is flexibility in securities law in covering all this so they haven’t passed new regulations saying the existing rules apply. It makes sense that it applies when you’re raising funds. Second to that, when people say we should go into a foreign country because it’s more beneficial etc, they fail to realize that a lot of the different countries rely on the U.S. for their rules and regulations. We are the world leader. They follow us in terms of what the standards are, and we’re already starting to see that the U.K. is taking similar positions. I believe Switzerland has recently been taking similar positions to us as well, so the days of trying to find loopholes are very, very limited. Chitra: But even if these cases are being brought, isn’t it going to take an unprecedented amount of international cooperation to actually bring these cases to bear? Because this is a global phenomenon, and there are no boundaries, no nation borders like in other cases. So how does this work? Morvareed: It’ll be a lot of choice of law issues, which is something that we already handle in different contexts, where parties may be in different jurisdictions. You basically do this choice of law analysis as was done in Tezos case. The court decides where is jurisdiction, is jurisdiction appropriate, can I exercise jurisdiction over this entity. One of the interesting things to think about in a way is - are you taking advantage of commerce in a specific jurisdiction? If you are, it doesn’t seem unrealistic for you to be called into court and held liable for your actions. So that’s one way to think of it there, and I think there needs to be some thought put in to structuring your transactions as well as some thought put into your contracts. It can’t just be boilerplate, it has to be well thought out. You should be thinking about these issues already, because you may not realize they're coming, but they’re already in courts and these will all be addressed and new issues are rising. For example, in that Tezos case, one of the factors the judge used to determine that the actual geographical jurisdictional location would be the U.S. was that most of the nodes were located in the U.S. So these are some of the issues—where are nodes located, where is marketing happening, where are the founders located. That was another factor—where is the website located for the securities offering, or for any kind of blockchain. So it’s a holistic factor contest that is being developed, and you need to have people that understand it on your side and helping you formulate your structures on the front end. So when it goes to litigation you’re not left scrambling, trying to come up with an argument to save yourself. Chitra: When laws are written, there’s often this idea that you want to not have them be too prescriptive, too narrow because as tech changes, as the world changes, that the law should be able to keep abreast with changes in society. Do you think that current laws - both in the U.S. and internationally - are built in such a way as to be able to adapt to this revolutionary technology, or are lawyers and courts just struggling to and scrambling to kind of understand what’s happening and to keep pace with it? Morvareed: No, so that’s what I always like to say—the law has always embraced innovation, and this has happened multiple times in the past. Case law in the U.S. specifically always sets precedent. So it’s always interpretation of laws and regulations that is how our case law develops. So it is always whenever some type of technological innovation happens - for example the internet and utilities even when those came out - our laws adapted to it, our judges interpreted it, we had arguments that the lawyers made on behalf of their clients, and they basically had the law developed. And it may take some time to get clarity, because there’s a lot of gray areas, so you need someone who’s going to be able to make persuasive arguments on your behalf. And once they’re able to do that, it will depend on the judge and jurisdiction you are before too, because there are certain situations where we can have conflicting laws even in our country because there are several circuits and our circuits can have splits where a certain number of them believe it should be one outcome and a certain number believe it should be another outcome. Again, similarly for example, in an area that’s more established - employment law. There are specific jurisdictions that are more beneficial to the employee versus not. So that jurisdictional issue is very important, and that’s something you should be talking with your lawyer to see. How do I pick a jurisdiction that’s beneficial to me, and how do I structure my transaction and my contract in a way to make it most likely that if something goes wrong, that is the jurisdictional result I will end up with? Chitra: And doesn’t it also matter who your judge is? Because if your judge is technologically savvy, is doing a lot of self education on cutting-edge tech, then it would make a difference in the outcome. But if you have a judge who is not so cutting-edge, it could have the opposite outcome. Morvareed: I think a lot of judges are pretty good about that. There was a judge in the northern district of California who has actually taught himself coding because he was getting a lot of software copyright infringement cases. So a lot of them actually make the effort to understand what is going on. They’re likely as interested by these issues because they’re new issues and they’re innovative. And it’s just interesting for us as lawyers to come up with resolutions for our clients, so I think a lot of them are excited about this. They understand it. Obviously, the opinions I’ve seen so far in these cases I’ve mentioned and several other ones have been really well thought out and really making a good look at the factors to consider and how to come up with a logistical and fair outcome in this case. Chitra: And it seems at least from our perspective, we found that with trademark law, this could have pretty groundbreaking consequences because of the idea of irreparable damage. For instance, we had to sue another company that was using our name and our likeness of our logo and had even registered its token with our name and what we discovered was - obviously it was settled in our favor and the other company has to change the name and notify exchanges that it has to change the name of its token. However, once it’s registered on the blockchain then you can’t change it, so this idea of irreparable harm is something that’s going to be revisited a lot when it comes to blockchain technology and cryptocurrency. Morvareed: It’s a big issue, and I don’t think people quite realize it. Intellectual property is one of the areas where this is really a big issue, because not only is it a legitimate infringement like you’re talking about, trademark copyright infringement. A lot of it is even by actors you may not be able to pinpoint. For example, with copyright infringement, there’s embedded material on blockchain ledger entries. Someone can put encrypted versions of movies or other copyright material on this blockchain, and then you have given the liability issue of finding these people. You don’t know who to send a digital millennium takedown request to. You don’t know who to call into court if there is an infringement that you want to stop. Similarly going along those lines you have issues with people embedding other inappropriate material. For example, state secrets, malware, blackmail material, all these things are things that can be embedded. And it then raises the question - you may not be able to locate the people who actually embedded that material, but there’s a copy of it on the blockchain, and the node operators are now storing that. Are they liable for that? Potentially yes, because there are certain locations where there is strict liability associated with that. For example, in China there’s strict liability for state secrets, and that is broadly defined from my understanding, so the node operators could all be liable for spreading state secrets. If they’re in China, that is a scary situation to be held liable for, so these are some of the considerations to take into effect. At that point, these node operators are faced basically with a choice: do we delete this? Then it’s not a blockchain, if we are changing it, and can we even delete it? How can we, can we all agree, is that even going to be effective? So it’s one of those issues that’s developing in terms of liability. And another kind of example to think about. I’m sure you’ve heard of Augur’s assassination markets. I’m sure something’s going to go wrong based on that, sooner or later, and I would not be surprised if Augur is called into court for that and has to address the issue of node operator and developer liability there. Chitra: And then you also have the request for information, warrants being issued, how do these companies… all of a sudden they’re on the hook for information and they find themselves in a very interesting position. How can companies protect themselves if they’re interested in getting into the space or are in the space? Morvareed: I think they need to work with lawyers who understand the space and start structuring businesses in a way that put some forethought and put some safeguards as how to address each of these issues. You need to have that forethought, because otherwise you’re going to be in a situation where you have no protocol or policy to address these issues when they do arise. Because they are arising already. And so you need a way to address it. And if someone approaches you and says there’s a copyrighted material on your blockchain, figure out a way to come to some agreement with them to resolve that. You don’t want to be the one called into court and incurring the cost of setting that precedent in the cases. Chitra: So, what are your top three takeaways or advice for companies that are in the space? What should they know, what should they be aware of, and what should they do? Morvareed: Sure. I think number one is—you’re not going to be able to get out of liability simply by structuring these entities abroad as has been established with these cases now. So stop trying to look for loopholes, and start actually thinking about how can I set up a legally complying business and make it grow. Two, you need to put forethought into how you’re structuring your business and your transactions. So you should be engaging lawyers who understand the space and business operations people who understand the space to set up your business appropriately and to have that forethought in your business structure. Three, if you realize something is going wrong, please go get council from an attorney right away. It’s so much more cost-effective to address this upfront instead of waiting for things to go really wrong before doing so. Chitra: And what about investors? Are there things they need to think about? Is this going to affect them as well, in terms of getting redress? For instance, you hear more and more about class action lawsuits being filed. Average investors—what are things they need to consider, and what redress do they have if something goes wrong? Morvareed: So, one kind of redress is this class action there’s a lot of pending. There’s Tezos, there’s NANO, one against Centra, there’s a Coinbase one. So the class actions are something that is a growing space for people who have lost money in these spaces. But I think before even getting there, the smarter thing to do would be to actually analyze any type of opportunity that you are looking to put your money in and never invest more than you can afford to lose, because the facts are that 90% of startups fail, all these people doing ICOs or token raises are all startups. So do your due diligence and really consider, is this something I think is going to succeed? And if I lose the money, am I okay with that? Chitra: Great. And looking back, is there any one moment or any one case or any one incident or anecdote that made you realize, wow, you know this is really going to be transformative—blockchain and cryptocurrency are going to be transformative to the law and the realization of the impact it’s going to have? Morvareed: I think it’s the technology itself and one of the strongest use cases in my opinion is supply chain blockchains; they create such advantages for business transactions there. For example, Walmart is doing this supply chain blockchain with IBM’s blockchain technology. And they did a beta test. They basically tracked a box of sliced mangos to its origination point doing their normal method, which took—I believe it was 6 days 18 hours and 2 minutes. They did it on their beta testing blockchain—it took 2 seconds. So that’s amazing in terms of how fast it was and, more importantly, when you think about it, it has advantages in terms of doing targeted recalls. So now you don’t have to recall all your lettuce if it’s bad. You know which farm it went to, which store it went to—targeted recall. Even if that’s still private blockchain, it still creates a competitive advantage because you’re spending less on recalls and you’re providing transparency to your consumers at the same time, and that’s something your competitors may not be able to provide. So I think those are the kind of use cases that will take off first and have really strong implications in an enterprise application. Chitra: Great. Do you have any closing thoughts? Morvareed: I think it’s - people like to apply blockchain technology to all sorts of different applications, and I think they need to consider if they are a business entrepreneur or business, whether their project actually needs a blockchain. Not everything needs a blockchain to succeed. Chitra: And this could actually protect them from all kinds of legal headaches. Morvareed: Not only legal headaches, but you know a cost of doing an ICO is actually a significant amount, both on the compliance and legal side as well as the engineering side in setting it up. So consider whether you really need that or a typical fundraising method may be better for you. Chitra: Great. Thanks, Morvareed. Where can people learn more about you, read more about you and your work? Morvareed: Sure. You can visit my website. It’s salehpourlaw.com. My email is also msalehpour@salehpourlaw.com. I’m on LinkedIn and I also have a Quora, so you can follow me on either of those. Chitra: Great - thanks so much. Morvareed: Thanks for having me, Chitra. It was a lot of fun. Chitra: Thanks for watching! Join me again next week for another edition of Chasing Unicorns. Until then, enjoy your crypto journey, unicorns!
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