Podcasts about Up Close

In this episode Dallas interviews Nick in Part 2 of Up Close and Personal With Nick! To watch FULL EPISODES and get ALL RUMBLE PREMIUM content AD FREE, join by clicking the link below, then the red RUMBLE PREMIUM button.  https://rumble.com/c/TheNickDiPaoloShow/exclusive MERCH - Grab some snazzy t-shirts, hats, hoodies,mugs, stickers etc. from our store! https://shop.nickdip.com/ Visit our website to keep up to date! - https://nickdip.com FOLLOW ME ON SOCIALS -   https://nickdipaolo.komi.io/

We are back next week with new episodes of The Bill Press Pod. The 12th and final chapter chronicles the demise of our fictional magazine, Capital Monthly. The pressure from the White House, from advertisers and from Social Media algorithms kills the independent journalism that was, in our stories, documenting what life was like for people under Donald Trump's second term guided by Project 2025. We now have seen, in real life, what evil Project 2025 has wrought. We hope this update of Trump's Project 2025: Up Close and Personal restores in all of us, our commitment to halt the march to disaster that is MAGA, Trump and most of the GOP. 2026 cannot come fast enough. But for us to stop the madness, we must VOTE and convince friends and family to vote as well.We'd like to thank all the artists who volunteered their time to make this series. Especially the talented sound designers Marilys Ernst and Jonathan Moser who worked on every episode. Trump's Project 2025: Up Close and Personal is written by David Pepper and produced by Pepper, Melissa Jo Peltier and Jay Feldman and is a production of Ovington Avenue Productions and The Bill Press Pod.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Bill is back next week from his research and writing sabbatical. While he's gone, we decided it's important to revisit the horrors we laid out in our Project 2025 podcast series, Trump's Project 2025: Up Close and Personal – and have the series author, pro-democracy advocate and the author of nine books, David Pepper, tie them to what's actually happened so far. In Chapter 11, set in November in Tallahassee, fictional Florida, Governor Buck Bryce confidently addresses the press regarding Hurricane Timothy, initially predicted to be a manageable Category 1 storm. However, the hurricane unexpectedly strengthens to a devastating Category 4 upon landfall, causing widespread destruction and significant loss of life. The governor, previously assured by Washington that all preparations were sufficient, is confronted with the reality of inadequate storm forecasting due to recent cuts to federal meteorological services as proposed by Project 2025 and now DOGE following through.As emergency response efforts falter, Bryce grapples with the new federal policies under Trump that make it difficult to declare emergencies and provide immediate assistance to affected businesses and citizens.(As is now actually happening: Under President Donald Trump, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has denied federal assistance for tornadoes in Arkansas, flooding in West Virginia and a windstorm in Washington state. It also has refused North Carolina's request for extended relief funding in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. This fictional but predictive narrative highlights the consequences of disregarding climate science and federal data, resulting in death and destructionAs always, the series author, David Pepper updates on how what he predicted has come to pass.We'd like to thank all the artists who volunteered their time to make this episode:Mark Ruffalo who read the chapter and others who contributed character voices. Sound design by Jonathan Moser.Trump's Project 2025: Up Close and Personal is written by David Pepper and produced by Pepper, Melissa Jo Peltier and Jay Feldman and is a production of Ovington Avenue Productions and The Bill Press Pod.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Marine veteran George Kite shares his account of close combat in Fallujah, the brutal realities of war, and the lifelong impact of PTSD in this week's Urban Valor episode. From growing up poor in South Carolina—sometimes homeless—to enlisting on his 17th birthday, George's journey is one of survival, grit, and raw honesty.He remembers the chaos of the First Battle of Fallujah, including rooftop firefights, mortar attacks, and moments that still haunt him decades later. George opens up about accidentally shooting a combatant, encountering child soldiers, losing friends in battle, and the emotional fallout that followed. His story captures what so many combat veterans face but rarely share publicly.George also describes life after war: working with the Army National Guard, battling depression, and discovering a new purpose by supporting fellow veterans through mental health challenges. From sniper school to urban warfare instructor to DC security assignments, George's Marine Corps career is filled with intense and emotional moments that every American should hear.This is not just a war story. It's a human story. One of courage, trauma, transformation, and the quiet fight that continues long after the battlefield.

Sermon by Rev. David HollisFor our current sermon series - Up Close: Encounters with the Risen LordScripture Reading: John 20:24-29

While Bill is on a research and writing sabbatical for the next 2 weeks we decided it's important to revisit the horrors we laid out in our Project 2025 podcast series, Trump's Project 2025: Up Close and Personal – and tie them to what's actually happened so far. The first part of Chapter10 introduces the fictional character Dr. Joy Brewer, a dedicated researcher focused on studying cancer clusters affecting Black Americans. Joy learns from her colleague, Dr. Matthias Kunz, that all federal grants linked to race or gender are being canceled, jeopardizing her life's work. Despite her attempts to advocate for her essential research, the political climate forces her into a corner where she must reconsider her direction. This part of the chapter closes with Joy's resolute decision to remain true to her mission, suggesting a significant personal and professional loss amidst the disaster of Trump and his ideological allies.In the second part of chapter, the fictional Webster "Web" Powers, addresses a packed ballroom in Washington, D.C., on a day he considers pivotal for his political ambitions. Web, who has transformed from a simple condo salesman into a powerful figure opposing what he sees as “woke” ideologies in education and government, relishes the fear among his audience—representatives from universities and research institutions. He recalls how his concerns about a lack of patriotic historical education for his children led him on a crusade to eliminate anti-American content from schools, which in turn propelled him into politics. After achieving success in Florida by banning critical race theory and related concepts from education, he is ready to extend his efforts nationally. During his speech, he unveils plans to remove references to race, gender identities, and diversity from federal policies and grants, branding the funding of such initiatives as “racism.” His announcement indicates that billions in federal research funds supporting various racial and gender-focused studies will now be terminated, causing dread among established academics who relied on these grants. Web takes pleasure in exerting control, sensing that his audience, once dismissive towards him, is now subservient to his newfound authority.Ultimately, both narratives illustrate what happens when a Trump second term guided by Project 2025 destroys the lives and work of dedicated individuals committed to social justice and scientific integrity.We'd like to thank all the artists who volunteered their time to make this episode:Danai Gurira and Joel Hurt Jones who read the chapter and others who contributed character voices. Sound design by Jonathan Moser and Marilys Ernst. Trump's Project 2025: Up Close and Personal is written by David Pepper and produced by Pepper, Melissa Jo Peltier and Jay Feldman and is a production of Ovington Avenue Productions and The Bill Press Pod.Today's Bill Press Pod is supported by The American Federation of Teachers. More information at AFT.orgSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

My favorite part of reading and podcasting is reading a fun book and then getting to bring that author to you. Ana Holguin is just that. I devoured her book, Up Close and Personal, and knew that it's unique premise was something we needed to discuss. Ana was so much fun. I know you are going to enjoy her just as much as I did. So tell me, What are you reading right now?   Shownotes: The Flatshare by Beth Rafe by Rebekah Weatherspoon Dreaming of You by Lisa Kleypas Emily Henry Beverly Jenkins Adriana Herrera Gabriela and His Grace by Liana De La Rosa Not Safe for Work by Nisha J Tuli The Trial of the Sun Queen Fan Favorite Adrienne Gunn Pride & Protest by Nikki Payne The Truth According to Ember Alexandra Vasti Glitterland by Alexis Hall The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo James by Percival Everett   Watching: Hacks   Connect with Ana: Instagram Ana's Notes App Substack     Connect with Addie Instagram @addie.yoder Facebook @coachaddiey Join Newsletter Website

Thanks for wandering through nature with me on another episode of The Nature Wanderer! This week, we're heading into nature to see the things we often miss. We'll be taking a closer look at the amazing close-up world of nature as we peer through our magnifying glass. Grab your magnifying glass and join me for an adventure up close.The spider I couldn't remember the name of in the episode is known as a white crab spider. I can't believe I forgot what it was called.the podcast and other Nature Wanderer projects: Donate here: ko-fi.com/thenaturewanderer Nature journals and books by The Nature Wanderer: Amazon Author Page Nature Wanderer merch: naturewanderer.org/merchLet's stay connected!  www.thenaturewanderer.com Instagram FacebookDon't forget to share, subscribe, review, and download to help others find the podcast. Got a topic idea or nature question? I'd love to hear from you!Support our eco-friendly affiliates: Try Apple Valley Natural Soaps – a treat for your skin and the planet.  Shop Life Without Plastic for sustainable swaps that make a difference.Thank you for listening—and keep wandering through nature. I'll see you next week!

While Bill is on a research and writing sabbatical for the next 2 weeks we decided it's important to revisit the horrors we laid out in our Project 2025 podcast series, Trump's Project 2025: Up Close and Personal – and tie them to what's actually happened so far. The story in this chapter follows fictional Private Troy Marquis, who attends a tense early morning briefing at a military reserve base in Philadelphia. Troy is told that a radical group, Antifa, has invaded the city, prompting a second-term President Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act. US law currently prohibits the military from operating on US soil. However, the Insurrection Act of 1807 gives the president broad and sweeping authority to use the military to quell domestic violence or conspiracy that the president thinks is a domestic rebellion or insurrection. Donald Trump tried use the Insurrection Act against Black Lives Matter protests in his first administration and has threatened use the U.S. Military to shut down protests against him in a second term.As the soldiers in Troy Marquis company advance towards City Hall, tensions rise with the conflict between what the soldiers were told and what they see with their own eyes. In the midst of a peaceful protest against police violence, the situation escalates when one soldier purposely makes up a perceived threat, leading to gunfire. The chaos results in the deaths of dozens and many injuries, including their own soldiers. Overcome with horror and guilt, Troy grapples with the aftermath of their actions and the brutal reality of their mission.In a view from the other side, the fictional Julie Brown joins that protest in Philadelphia calling for justice after the police killing of two Black students. Despite her parents' concerns about the increasing hostility towards protesters, she feels compelled to stand up for her beliefs. The protest initially unfolds peacefully, filled with songs and chants, until military forces arrive with orders to disperse the demonstrators. As the military's authoritative tone becomes increasingly menacing, panic ensues when gunfire breaks out, resulting in casualties among the protesters. Julie is injured in the chaos and wakes up in the hospital, facing a representative of military intelligence who informs her that the protest group is being investigated for allegedly attacking the military. Once again in a trump administration up is down and down is up.We'd like to thank all the artists who volunteered their time to make this episode:Mark Hamill and Andrea Guidry who read the chapters and others who contributed character voices. Sound design by Jonathan Moser and Marilys Ernst. This episode of Trump's Project 2025: Up Close and Personal was jointly written by Daniel Miller—lawyer, writer and democracy advocate—and David Pepper and produced by Pepper, Melissa Jo Peltier and Jay Feldman and is a production of Ovington Avenue Productions and The Bill Press Pod.Today's Bill Press Pod is supported by the American Federation of Government employees. More information at AFGE.orgSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jayaprakash Bojan (JP)'s photo of a giant male orangutang peeping at him from behind a tree in a Borneo river won him National Geographic's Nature Photographer of the Year in 2017. The image was seen by over 3.5 million people, propelling both him and the plight of Red Apes into the spotlight. In this conversation with A Rocha co founder Peter Harris and Jo Swinney, JP talks publicly for the first time about his burgeoning faith in the Creator of All, the values that underpin his approach to nature photography and where his career has gone after everything changed with the National Geographic award.JP lives in Singapore with his wife and their child. You can find him and see some of his incredible photography and film work on social media: Instagram - @Jayaprakash_bojan, Facebook – Jayaprakash Bojan photography, LinkedIn – Jayaprakash Bojan

Sermon by Steve Stone Jr.For our current sermon series - Up Close: Encounters with the Risen LordScripture Reading: John 20:19-23

Sem Steijn pakte alle krantenkoppen met zijn transfer naar Feyenoord. Hij is niet de enige winnaar, want we geven deze week twee exclusieve kaarten weg voor de Up Close en Personal show met Frank de Boer in Boom Chicago. Rob is geblesseerd, maar gelukkig voor hem PSV won overtuigend. Thijs is blij, want FC Twente pakte ook weer eens punten. Feyenoord harkte ook weer drie punten binnen onder van Persie en de competitie is nog zeker niet gespeeld. Randje Buitenspel is een podcast waar vier comedians babbelen over voetbal. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Rob Scheepers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Thijs Kemperink⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Tim Hartog⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ en ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Wilko Terwijn ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠zijn allemaal fan van een andere club en worden niet gehinderd door enige kennis of feiten. Het is klagen en lachen over voetbal en hun eigen cluppie.

While Bill is on a research and writing sabbatical for the next 3 weeks we decided it's important to revisit the horrors we laid out in our Project 2025 podcast series, Trump's Project 2025: Up Close and Personal – and tie them to what's actually happened so far. Project 2025 proposed to eliminate the Department of Education and divert federal education funding into universal school voucher programs, allowing public money to be used for private and for-profit schools. This would result in cuts to critical services and programs at public schools, including mental health counseling, school resource officers, after-school programs, reading/writing specialists, and services for students with disabilities. Classroom sizes at public schools would increase substantially due to the funding cuts, hampering the ability to provide a quality education. The plan also calls for the censorship of curriculum and book banning related to topics like racial equity, LGBTQ issues, and reproductive health. Private for-profit schools receiving voucher funds have been found to use substandard or misleading curriculum, including teaching that dinosaurs and humans co-existed and that slavery was not as bad as portrayed. Overall, the goal of Project 2025 is to end public education in the United States in favor of a privatized, deregulated school system, with devastating consequences for students, especially those from lower-income families and communities.Based on the actual proposals and likely consequences above, the fictional based stories begin as Martha Sheakley, the principal of Southeast Middle School, faces the challenges of new controversial book-banning laws that require the removal of numerous classics from the library. As she meets with librarian Paige Parker, they express their frustration over the vague standards forcing them to censor popular titles, including works by Toni Morrison and Anne Frank. Martha is frustrated with the political landscape affecting education and the consequences of enforcing these new laws. Martha then attends a distressing meeting about school funding. Due to the government's shift to vouchers for private schools, public schools face severe funding cuts. She learns they must eliminate wrap-around services and support staff, including mental health counselors, after-care programs, and special education resources. These cuts threaten the well-being of students and the overall educational environment. The meeting exposes the deepening crisis in public education as more responsibilities are pushed onto families with lower income and fewer resources. After a day filled with painful decisions and meetings, Martha encounters law enforcement taking away censored books from the library, further highlighting the absurdity and tragedy of censorship in education. As the day ends, Martha reflects on the privilege of parents benefitting from the new policies while her own students and staff suffer the consequences.In parallel, Marcus and other parents share their concerns about Blue Ribbon Academy, a new school that seemed promising but delivered a disappointing reality. They discover misleading curriculum materials that trivialize serious historical issues and provide an inadequate education. As they navigate their experiences trying to advocate for better education options for their children, they are met with resistance from the Blue Ribbon administration, which has no accountability to the public.Despite their efforts, the parents ultimately face the grim reality that shifts in educational policy have sidelined their children, particularly those with special needs like Marcus's son, Jamal, who is deemed "not a good fit" for Blue Ribbon due to his ADHD. This reflects a larger trend of public schools becoming underfunded and unable to meet the needs of diverse learners as more families are funneled into less supportive educational environments.We'd like to thank all the artists who volunteered their time to make this episode: Ever Carradine and Don Cheadle who read the chapters and others who contributed character voices. Sound design by Johnathan Moser.Trump's Project 2025: Up Close and Personal is written by David Pepper and produced by Pepper, Melissa Jo Peltier and Jay Feldman and is a production of Ovington Avenue Productions and The Bill Press Pod. Today's Bill Press Pod is supported by The Laborers' International Union of North America. More information at LIUNA.orgSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Greg Alexander sold SBI, his 30-person consulting firm, for $162 million. Since then, he's had a front-row seat to 50 other service firm exits through his peer group, Collective 54. In this episode of Built to Sell Radio, Greg breaks down what separates firms that sell from those that stall.  This is a Mastering the Deal episode of Built to Sell Radio—designed to help you punch above your weight in a negotiation to sell your business. 

While Bill is on a research and writing sabbatical for the next 4 weeks we decided it's important to revisit the horrors we laid out in our Project 2025 podcast series, Trump's Project 2025: Up Close and Personal – and have the series author, pro-democracy advocate and the author of nine books, David Pepper, tie them to what's actually happened so far. In this episode of Trump's Project 2025: Up Close and Personal, we see the real-life effects of this assault on unions and workers. In our fictional story, two legendary high school football players, Turk Foster and DeAndre McCollum, still relish their past glory. But they are struggling to navigate the rule changes proposed by Project 2025 that undercut the power of unions and tilt the playing field in favor of the employers to the detriment of employees. Turk struggles with his job as a union electrician as wages and job security diminish. He feels the weight of expectation on his son, who may soon forgo football to support the family by taking a job, previously off limits to teenagers in a plant in town. DeAndre's wife, a nurse, has had her hours cut and has to cope with last minute schedule changes that disrupt their family life.In the second half of the episode, Bruce Lipton, the fictional private equity executive, plays golf with his HR consultant Dudley Brennan. Their conversation reveals the ruthless cost-cutting measures undertaken by their firm, Bald Eagle Capital, and the broader privatized economy shaped by the election of Donald Trump and the deregulation as proposed in Project 2025. Dudley lists strategies like eliminating union protections, utilizing young workers—including hiring teenagers for hazardous jobs—and reducing overtime expenses. Despite his discomfort with these practices, Bruce feels pressured to comply with the aggressive corporate tactics that prioritize profit over worker safety and rights, reflecting an uncomfortable tension between his upbringing in a union household and the cutthroat world of private equity. The chapter concludes with Bruce's disillusionment leading him to leave the golf course, symbolizing his internal conflict over the ethical implications of his work. We'd like to thank all the artists who volunteered their time to make this episode: Wendell Pierce and Fisher Stevens who read the chapters and others who contributed character voices. Sound design by Marilys Ernst and Jonathan MoserTrump's Project 2025: Up Close and Personal is written by David Pepper and produced by Pepper, Melissa Jo Peltier and Jay Feldman and is a production of Ovington Avenue Productions and The Bill Press Pod.Today's Bill Press Pod is supported by The Ironworkers Union. More information at Ironworkers.org.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

While Bill is on a research and writing sabbatical for the next 4 weeks we decided it's important to revisit the horrors we laid out in our Project 2025 podcast series, Trump's Project 2025: Up Close and Personal – and tie them to what's actually happened so far. The story that leads off Chapter 6 captures the struggles of 12-year-old Alvaro and his mother in a fictional detention center in West Texas. Alvaro expresses his hunger to his mother, who is too weak to properly care for herself. As they navigate the deteriorating conditions of the camp—overcrowded with diminishing food supplies, hostile guards, and a sense of fear from both authorities and fellow detainees—Alvaro reflects on lost friendships and longing for better times. His mother's health declines as she sacrifices for him, giving him her piece of bread despite needing it more herself. This highlights Alvaro's growing awareness of their desperate situation. He learns from a friend, Manuel, about possible escape routes and decides to plan his own escape to ensure both his and his mother's safety.In the second half of Chapter 6, in a parallel narrative, soldier Jake Caldwell describes the chaos of the detention center from his perspective. As he witnesses the overwhelming influx of women and children, he feels the systemic failures of the camp. The environment strips away humanity, leading children to escape in search of freedom. As both narratives unfold, Alvaro attempts to escape the camp, filled with hope for a future where he can see his mother smile again even as Jake grapples with the moral dilemmas of his role in the oppressive system. Their stories intertwine themes of resilience, sacrifice, and the harsh realities faced by both detainees and guards in the unjust conditions of the camp.We'd like to thank all the artists who volunteered their time to make this episode:Mark Ruffalo and Andrea Guidry who read the chapters and others who contributed character voices. Sound design by Marilys Ernst and Jonathan Moser.Trump's Project 2025: Up Close and Personal is written by David Pepper and produced by Pepper, Melissa Jo Peltier and Jay Feldman and is a production of Ovington Avenue Productions and The Bill Press Pod.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Christian ; Follower of GOD Servant of CHRIST        Decorated Combat VeteranCorporate; U.S. Marine Corps Urban Warfare Instrictor;       S.R.T. Commander Active Shooter Response Team Law Enforcement Los Angeles Police (L.A.P.D.) Police Officer / Fugitive RecoveryF.B.I. Instructor N.R.A Instructor Competition Shooter; Multi Time State Rifle Pistol Champion Hunting; Life Long Hunter Proffessional Hunter and Guide Private Security Contractor; Several Agencies,  Current. GOD Provides / JESUS SavesPatreon https://bit.ly/3jcLDuZBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/gunfighter-life-survival-guns-tactical-hunting--4187306/support.

While Bill is on a research and writing sabbatical for the next 4 weeks we decided it's important to revisit the horrors we laid out in our Project 2025 podcast series, Trump's Project 2025: Up Close and Personal – and have the series author, pro-democracy advocate and the author of nine books, David Pepper, tie them to what's actually happened so far. In Chapter 5, Part one, the fictional characters Congresswoman Louise Getty (a stand-in for Liz Cheney) and Senator Wade Stiller, former rivals, meet at the World War II Memorial in Washington D.C. They reflect on their pasts and express concern over a hostile political climate under Trump's second term, feeling fear and paranoia about being surveilled and targeted by the government. Their conversation reveals a sense of vulnerability as they confront the reality that many of their colleagues have abandoned principles out of fear. Louise recalls the intense political maneuvering and betrayals leading up to and following the January 6 insurrection.In Part Two, Woody Nuxhall, the newly appointed head of the Treason and Political Crime Section of the DOJ, oversees his zealous young team of prosecutors, eager to pursue investigations and vendettas against political enemies. The group discusses tactics to surveil and undermine former colleagues and opposition figures, planning a strategy fueled by partisan loyalty and vengeance, while embracing a radical transformation of the DOJ's role in politics. While these stories are fictional, they are based on Trump's own words and Project 2025.We'd like to thank the artists who contributed their time to make this episode:Richard Schiff and Morgan Fairchild who read the chapters and Jason Kravits, Tony Michaels, Jim Hilmes, Joe Walsh and Omid Abtahi contributed character voices. Sound Design by Marilys Ernst and Jonathan Moser.Trump's Project 2025: Up Close and Personal was written by David Pepper and Produced by Pepper, Melissa Jo Peltier and Jay Feldman and is a production of Ovington Avenue Productions and The Bill Press Pod. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

AT OUR AGE AN ADVENTURE IN TANZANIA AT 70   A good friend in Gulfport, Florida recently took an adventurous trip to Tanzania in celebration of her soon to be 70th birthday. Christine shares that they experienced the flora, cuisine  and the  beasts UP CLOSE.   They also volunteered at a preschool kindergarten to teach the kids as part of their cultural experience.  At PPSARE, their mission is to share Tanzania's national parks with visitors and tourists and  to give the clients a taste of Tanzanian culture and lifestyle.  PPSAE Wildlife Safaris | a | P.O,Box 476 Usarver,Arusha https://www.ppsarewildlife.com/Tanzania is home to 120 different tribes who live together peacefully. Christine enjoyed an authentic safari adventure, developed a better understanding of Tanzania's rich, multi-cultural society. According to Christine, all the tour guides share a passion for the environment. They invite every adventurer to plant a fruit tree or watershed tree at the conclusion of each tour. Giving back to Tanzania's community and country is one of their greatest joys. One of the ways they do this is by being a mentor to others in their country who would like to create a micro-enterprise in Safari/Cultural tourism.  They also give back through my direct association with an NGO (NPO) called The Small Things.  Yoga, Meditations to Balance Yourself Here is the BEST link for JSJ: (JIN SHIN JYUTSU) HealthKeepersUnited.com/Self-help-JSJ *** Patti Wohlin is another woman of a certain age teaching us Jin Shin JYUTSU WINE and Food NEW MEXICO HAS IT ALL and I'll be sharing more with you all as I just relocated my business here!  La Chiripada Winery & Vineyard is tucked away in the lovely Embudo Valley of northern New Mexico. Owned and operated by the Johnson family, La Chiripada has been creating award-WINNING. 135* per 6 bottle shipment. Shipping and tax varies per state. Save 20% off retail price. If you enjoy a good white wine, you'll love our white wine club, which offers a quarterly sampling of dry and off-dry wines such as Chardonnay, Winemakers Select White, Viognier, Riesling, Primavera and Embudo Blanco. Wines are shipped the first or second week of March, June, September and December. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/new-mexico-unexpected-wine-country Contact VALERIE producer creator INTERESTED IN HAVING YOUR BUSINESS FEATURED? CONTACT ME FOR A FREE STRATEGY SESSION: https://calendly.com/vahail1956/30min  valerie@allinourminds.com www.allinourminds.com

While Bill is on a research and writing sabbatical, we decided it's important to revisit the horrors we laid out in our Project 2025 podcast series, Trump's Project 2025: Up Close and Personal – and to ask the author David Pepper tie them to what's actually happened so far. This episode tells the fictional story of a middle school that opens its doors to unvaccinated students under a second Trump Regime as Trump eliminates Federal funding for schools with vaccine mandates. The story follows the school nurse, Stephanie Morris, as she navigates the influx of unvaccinated students and the resulting disease outbreaks that spread rapidly through the school and community. The narrative illustrates the real-world implications of the president's policy, with outbreaks of diseases like measles, whooping cough, and the flu causing hospitalizations and even deaths among vulnerable students and staff. The story highlights the challenges faced by the school nurse in trying to protect the health of all students, including her own daughter who has an autoimmune condition, without the backing of mandatory vaccination policies. We'd like to thank all the artists who volunteered their time to make this episode: Laurie Burke, Leigh McGowan who read the chapters & Audrey Hakes, Joe Walsh, & others who contributed character voices. Sound design by Marilys Ernst and Jonathan Moser. Trump's Project 2025: Up Close and Personal written by David Pepper and produced by Pepper, Melissa Jo Peltier and Jay Feldman and is a production of Ovington Avenue Productions and The Bill Press Pod.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Get ready to step back in time! In this special Holy Week episode of Open Our Bible Together, I sat down with Tammy Munson, host of Christian Podcasting Secrets, for a powerful conversation about witnessing the events of Holy Week and Easter as if we were there.   We dive into:  The celebration and tension of Palm Sunday (Matthew 21:1-11) The emotional weight and confusion of the Last Supper (Luke 22:14-20) The heartbreak of Good Friday (Isaiah 53, Psalm 22) The world-changing joy of Resurrection Sunday (Luke 24:1-12)   PLUS—we explore how visual portrayals, like The Chosen Season 4, bring these moments to life in a whole new way! Join us as we reflect on Old Testament prophecies, biblical insights, and what it would be like to stand in the crowd during the most significant week in history.   AND… of course, Tammy and I are having a little fun in this one too! We can't help ourselves! Be sure to listen in as we're answering some lighthearted Easter questions to end our time together—so get ready to laugh, reflect, and celebrate the real reason we have hope this Easter season. Thank You, Jesus!   For the full episode show notes, please go to https://mfahring.com/what-if-you-saw-holy-week-up-close/

While Bill is on a research and writing sabbatical for the next 5 weeks we decided it's important to revisit the horrors we laid out in our Project 2025 podcast series, Trump's Project 2025: Up Close and Personal – and tie them to what's actually happened so far. In Chapter 3, the fact-based fictional story of Dr. Yvette Hardman and JJ Newsom depicts the dismantling of expertise and science-based decision making in the federal government under a second Trump administration guided by Project 2025. Dr. Hardman, an experienced infectious disease expert, is removed from her position at the CDC and replaced by JJ Newsom, an unqualified political loyalist with no relevant experience. This reflects Project 2025's plan to fill government positions with partisan appointees rather than nonpartisan experts. The new administration, in this fictional account and now in real life, rejects science-based pandemic response recommendations from Dr. Hardman instead prioritizing political and economic considerations over public health. This aligns with Project 2025's directives to limit the CDC's ability to make public health recommendations. The story highlights the Trump administration's hostility towards science and the displacement of experienced civil servants. Overall, the narrative illustrates how a second Trump term guided by Project 2025 would undermine the role of expertise and independent scientific advice in government, with potentially disastrous consequences for public health and safety.We'd like to thank all the artists who volunteered their time to make this episode: CCH Pounder, Richard Schiff and Jason Kravits who read the chapters and Omid Abtahi, Laurie Burke and Joanne Carducci who did the voices. Sound design by Marilys Ernst and Jonathan Moser. Trump's Project 2025: Up Close and Personal was written by David Pepper and produced by Pepper, Melissa Jo Peltier and Jay Feldman and is a production of Ovington Avenue Productions and The Bill Press Pod.Today's Bill Press Pod is supported by The Laborers' International Union of North America. More information at LIUNA.org.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

While Bill is on a research and writing sabbatical for the next 6 weeks we decided it's important to revisit the horrors we laid out in our Project 2025 podcast series, Trump's Project 2025: Up Close and Personal – and tie them to what's actually happened so far. Chapter Two depicts the personal story of Eve, a nurse struggling with infertility, whose treatment is threatened by the new president's actions. The episode explores how the president's policies are impacting everyday Americans, particularly women and families, by interfering with reproductive freedom and the right to self-determination. The author of the serialized novel “2025,” upon which this podcast series is based, David Pepper, highlights how the fictional story is turning into fact, underscoring the very real and devastating consequences a second Trump term and the implementation of Project 2025 are having. You can read Chapter Two of David Pepper's “2025: A Novel” at davidpepper.substack.com/p/2025-a-novel-chapter-2We'd like to thank all the artists who volunteered their time to make this episode. J. Smith Cameron read the chapter and audio finishing by Marilys Ernst. This series is produced by David Pepper, Melissa, Jo Peltier and Jay Feldman. Trump's Project 2025: Up Close and Personal is a production of Ovington Avenue Productions and the Bill Press Pod.Today's Podcast is supported by The Ironworkers Union. More information at Ironworkers.orgSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Steven Frayne, formerly known as Dynamo, takes us on an extraordinary journey from the tough streets of Bradford to becoming one of the world's most celebrated magicians. In this revealing episode of Full Disclosure, Steven opens up about his transformative life experiences- growing up in a single-parent household, dealing with adversity, and finding magic in the most unexpected places. From overcoming bullying and a challenging childhood to battling a life-threatening illness, Steven shares how these personal struggles led him to redefine what magic truly means.James O'Brien speaks with Steven about his path to success, the emotional complexities of his public persona, and his decision to step away from the Dynamo name to embrace his true self. Touching on themes of resilience, self-discovery, and the power of reinvention, Steven reflects on how magic has helped him navigate life's obstacles and find purpose.Engaging, introspective, and filled with wisdom, Steven's journey offers a poignant look at how embracing one's vulnerabilities can lead to extraordinary transformations.You can buy tickets to Steven Frayne's Up Close and Magical show here

While Bill is on a research and writing sabbatical for the next 6 weeks we decided it's important to revisit the horrors we laid out in our Project 2025 podcast series, Trump's Project 2025: Up Close and Personal – and tie them to what's actually happened so far. Chapter One depicts how the lives of everyday Americans would be impacted by the policies outlined in Trump's Project 2025 and the return of Donald Trump to power. The fictional story follows Ammon Maher, a college student and immigrant, as he is detained and deported without due process due to his involvement in past campus protests. This narrative directly reflects Trump's campaign promises and current actions to crack down on student protesters and his administration's policies that target undocumented immigrants. The author of the serialized “2025: A Novel” upon which this podcast series is based, David Pepper, highlights how these policies are being implemented right now. We hope the re-running and updating of the podcast series will encourage even more people to stand up to Donald Trump, strengthen our courage to resist, and lead to a total rejection of Donald Trump and the anti-democratic MAGA movement in 2026.. You can read Chapter One of David Pepper's “2025: A Novel” at davidpepper.substack.com/p/2025-a-novelThis episode is supported by The United Food and Commercial Workers Union. More information at UFCW.orgSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

[Original airdate: 4/4/24] Mary chats with Brady Blevins of Watchman Fellowship, an apologetics ministry dedicated to exposing the major cults of our time. Brady serves as the senior apologist at Watchman and has a heart for sharing the true gospel with those deceived by a counterfeit Christianity.  He also teaches and serves as the assistant dean of the Graduate School of Theology and Chair for the School of Ministry at Arlington Baptist University. We discuss the basics of the Witness cult and also get an update on their annual meeting that was held in October 2023. Brady clarifies for us what a Kingdom Hall is, The Watchtower Society, what happens when people leave the cult, and many other finer points of what it means to be a JW.

Mike Benton sets up the Apr. 5 matchup at SAP Center at San Jose, between the Seattle Krakena and San Jose Sharks, joined one-on-one with defenseman Adam Larsson and Kraken VP of editorial Geoff Baker. 

Ever wonder what it's like to get mentored up close? In this episode, Juliana and Sandee pull back the curtain on the Inner Circle—a sacred space for Kingdom Builders who are ready to stop circling mountains and start living with Kingdom clarity and confidence. Inside the Inner Circle, you get:

In this episode, Dinesh draws on newly-released data from New York University to show the shameful extent of racial preferences. Dinesh celebrates what looks to be the demise of the activist group Greenpeace. Professor Stanley Ridgley, author of “DEI Exposed,” joins Dinesh to chart a path toward the overthrow of DEI and the realization of Martin Luther King’s dream of a color-blind society.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Did you know the Holy Spirit desires a close relationship with you? Pastor Drost teaches on how we can talk and walk with the Holy Spirit in an intimate, direct, and personal way. The post Up Close and Personal appeared first on Smythe Street Church.

By Walt HickeyDouble feature today!Welcome to the Numlock Sunday edition.This week, I spoke to Alissa Wilkinson who is out with the brand new book, We Tell Ourselves Stories: Joan Didion and the American Dream Machine.I'm a huge fan of Alissa, she's a phenomenal critic and I thought this topic — what happens when one of the most important American literary figures heads out to Hollywood to work on the most important American medium — is super fascinating. It's a really wonderful book and if you're a longtime Joan Didion fan or simply a future Joan Didion fan, it's a look at a really transformative era of Hollywood and should be a fun read regardless.Alissa can be found at the New York Times, and the book is available wherever books are sold.This interview has been condensed and edited. All right, Alissa, thank you so much for coming on.Yeah, thanks for having me. It's good to be back, wherever we are.Yes, you are the author of We Tell Ourselves Stories: Joan Didion and the American Dream Machine. It's a really exciting book. It's a really exciting approach, for a Joan Didion biography and placing her in the current of American mainstream culture for a few years. I guess just backing out, what got you interested in Joan Didion to begin with? When did you first get into her work?Joan Didion and I did not become acquainted, metaphorically, until after I got out of college. I studied Tech and IT in college, and thus didn't read any books, because they don't make you read books in school, or they didn't when I was there. I moved to New York right afterward. I was riding the subway. There were all these ads for this book called The Year of Magical Thinking. It was the year 2005, the book had just come out. The Year of Magical Thinking is Didion's National Book Award-winning memoir about the year after her husband died, suddenly of a heart attack in '03. It's sort of a meditation on grief, but it's not really what that sounds like. If people haven't read it's very Didion. You know, it's not sentimental, it's constantly examining the narratives that she's telling herself about grief.So I just saw these ads on the walls. I was like, what is this book that everybody seems to be reading? I just bought it and read it. And it just so happened that it was right after my father, who was 46 at the time, was diagnosed with a very aggressive leukemia, and then died shortly thereafter, which was shocking, obviously. The closer I get to that age, it feels even more shocking that he was so young. I didn't have any idea how to process that emotion or experience. The book was unexpectedly helpful. But it also introduced me to a writer who I'd never read before, who felt like she was looking at things from a different angle than everyone else.Of course, she had a couple more books come out after that. But I don't remember this distinctly, but probably what happened is I went to some bookstore, The Strand or something, and bought The White Album and Slouching Towards Bethlehem off the front table as everyone does because those books have just been there for decades.From that, I learned more, starting to understand how writing could work. I didn't realize how form and content could interact that way. Over the years, I would review a book by her or about her for one publication or another. Then when I was in graduate school, getting my MFA in nonfiction, I wrote a bit about her because I was going through a moment of not being sure if my husband and I were going to stay in New York or we were going to move to California. They sort of obligate you to go through a goodbye to all that phase if you are contemplating that — her famous essay about leaving New York. And then, we did stay in New York City. But ultimately, that's 20 years of history.Then in 2020, I was having a conversation (that was quite-early pandemic) with my agent about possible books I might write. I had outlined a bunch of books to her. Then she was like, “These all sound like great ideas. But I've always wanted to rep a book on Joan Didion. So I just wanted to put that bug in your ear.” I was like, “Oh, okay. That seems like something I should probably do.”It took a while to find an angle, which wound up being Didion in Hollywood. This is mostly because I realized that a lot of people don't really know her as a Hollywood figure, even though she's a pretty major Hollywood figure for a period of time. The more of her work I read, the more I realized that her work is fruitfully understood as the work of a woman who was profoundly influenced by (and later thinking in terms of Hollywood metaphors) whether she was writing about California or American politics or even grief.So that's the long-winded way of saying I wasn't, you know, acquainted with her work until adulthood, but then it became something that became a guiding light for me as a writer.That's really fascinating. I love it. Because again I think a lot of attention on Didion has been paid since her passing. But this book is really exciting because you came at it from looking at the work as it relates to Hollywood. What was Didion's experience in Hollywood? What would people have seen from it, but also, what is her place there?The directly Hollywood parts of her life start when she's in her 30s. She and her husband — John Gregory Dunn, also a writer and her screenwriting partner — moved from New York City, where they had met and gotten married, to Los Angeles. John's brother, Nick Dunn later became one of the most important early true crime writers at Vanity Fair, believe it or not. But at the time, he was working as a TV producer. He and his wife were there. So they moved to Los Angeles. It was sort of a moment where, you know, it's all well and good to be a journalist and a novelist. If you want to support yourself, Hollywood is where it's at.So they get there at a moment when the business is shifting from these big-budget movies — the Golden Age — to the new Hollywood, where everything is sort of gritty and small and countercultural. That's the moment they arrive. They worked in Hollywood. I mean, they worked literally in Hollywood for many years after that. And then in Hollywood even when they moved back to New York in the '80s as screenwriters still.People sometimes don't realize that they wrote a bunch of produced screenplays. The earliest was The Panic in Needle Park. Obviously, they adapted Didion's novel Play It As It Lays. There are several others, but one that a lot of people don't realize they wrote was the version of A Star is Born that stars Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson. It was their idea to shift the Star is Born template from Hollywood entities to rock stars. That was their idea. Of course, when Bradley Cooper made his version, he iterated on that. So their work was as screenwriters but also as figures in the Hollywood scene because they were literary people at the same time that they were screenwriters. They knew all the actors, and they knew all the producers and the executives.John actually wrote, I think, two of the best books ever written on Hollywood decades apart. One called The Studio, where he just roamed around on the Fox backlot. For a year for reasons he couldn't understand, he got access. That was right when the catastrophe that was Dr. Doolittle was coming out. So you get to hear the inside of the studio. Then later, he wrote a book called Monster, which is about their like eight-year long attempt to get their film Up Close and Personal made, which eventually they did. It's a really good look at what the normal Hollywood experience was at the time: which is like: you come up with an idea, but it will only vaguely resemble the final product once all the studios get done with it.So it's, it's really, that's all very interesting. They're threaded through the history of Hollywood in that period. On top of it for the book (I realized as I was working on it) that a lot of Didion's early life is influenced by especially her obsession with John Wayne and also with the bigger mythology of California and the West, a lot of which she sees as framed through Hollywood Westerns.Then in the '80s, she pivoted to political reporting for a long while. If you read her political writing, it is very, very, very much about Hollywood logic seeping into American political culture. There's an essay called “Inside Baseball” about the Dukakis campaign that appears in Political Fictions, her book that was published on September 11, 2001. In that book, she writes about how these political campaigns are directed and set up like a production for the cameras and how that was becoming not just the campaign, but the presidency itself. Of course, she had no use for Ronald Reagan, and everything she writes about him is very damning. But a lot of it was because she saw him as the embodiment of Hollywood logic entering the political sphere and felt like these are two separate things and they need to not be going together.So all of that appeared to me as I was reading. You know, once you see it, you can't unsee it. It just made sense for me to write about it. On top of it, she was still alive when I was writing the proposal and shopping it around. So she actually died two months after we sold the book to my publisher. It meant I was extra grateful for this angle because I knew there'd be a lot more books on her, but I wanted to come at it from an angle that I hadn't seen before. So many people have written about her in Hollywood before, but not quite through this lens.Yeah. What were some things that you discovered in the course of your research? Obviously, she's such an interesting figure, but she's also lived so very publicly that I'm just super interested to find out what are some of the things that you learned? It can be about her, but it can also be the Hollywood system as a whole.Yeah. I mean, I didn't interview her for obvious reasons.Understandable, entirely understandable.Pretty much everyone in her life also is gone with the exception really of Griffin Dunn, who is her nephew, John's nephew, the actor. But other than that, it felt like I needed to look at it through a critical lens. So it meant examining a lot of texts. A lot of Didion's magazine work (which was a huge part of her life) is published in the books that people read like Slouching Towards Bethlehem and The White Album and all the other books. What was interesting to me was discovering (I mean, not “discovering” because other people have read it) that there is some work that's not published and it's mostly her criticism.Most of that criticism was published in the late '50s and the early '60s when she was living in New York City, working at Vogue and trying to make it in the literary scene that was New York at that time, which was a very unique place. I mean, she was writing criticism and essays for both, you know, like National Review and The Nation at the same time, which was just hard to conceive of today. It was something you'd do back then. Yeah, wild stuff.A lot of that criticism was never collected into books. The most interesting is that she'd been working at Vogue for a long time in various positions, but she wound up getting added to the film critic column at Vogue in, '62, I want to say, although I might have that date slightly off. She basically alternated weeks with another critic for a few years, writing that until she started writing in movies proper. It's never a great idea to be a critic and a screenwriter at the same time.Her criticism is fascinating. So briefly, for instance, she shared that column with Pauline Kael. Pauline Kael became well known after she wrote about Bonnie and Clyde. This was prior to that. This is several years prior to that. They also hated each other for a long time afterward, which is funny, because, in some ways, their style is very different but their persona is actually very similar. So I wonder about that.But in any case, even when she wasn't sharing the column with Pauline Kael, it was a literal column in a magazine. So it's like one column of text, she can say barely anything. She was always a bit of a contrarian, but she was actively not interested in the things that were occupying New York critics at the time. Things like the Auteur Theory, what was happening in France, the downtown scene and the Shirley Clark's of the world. She had no use for it. At some point, she accuses Billy Wilder of having really no sense of humor, which is very funny.When you read her criticism, you see a person who is very invested in a classical notion of Hollywood as a place that shows us fantasies that we can indulge in for a while. She talks in her very first column about how she doesn't really need movies to be masterpieces, she just wants them to have moments. When she says moments, she means big swelling things that happen in a movie that make her feel things.It's so opposite, I think, to most people's view of Didion. Most people associate her with this snobbish elitism or something, which I don't think is untrue when we're talking about literature. But for her, the movies were like entertainment, and entering that business was a choice to enter that world. She wasn't attempting to elevate the discourse or something.I just think that's fascinating. She also has some great insights there. But as a film critic, I find myself disagreeing with most of her reviews. But I think that doesn't matter. It was more interesting to see how she conceived of the movies. There is a moment later on, in another piece that I don't think has been republished anywhere from the New York Review of Books, where she writes about the movies of Woody Allen. She hates them. It's right at the point where he's making like Manhattan and Annie Hall, like the good stuff. She just has no use for them. It's one of the funniest pieces. I won't spoil the ending because it's hilarious, and it's in the book.That writing was of huge interest to me and hasn't been republished in books. I was very grateful to get access to it, in part because it is in the archives — the electronic archives of the New York Public Library. But at the time, the library was closed. So I had to call the library and have a librarian get on Zoom with me for like an hour and a half to figure out how I could get in the proverbial back door of the library to get access while the library wasn't open.That's magnificent. That's such a cool way to go to the archives because some stuff just hasn't been published. If it wasn't digitized, then it's not digitized. That's incredible.Yeah, it's there, but you can barely print them off because they're in PDFs. They're like scanned images that are super high res, so the printer just dies when you try to print them. It's all very fascinating. I hope it gets republished at some point because I think there's enough interest in her work that it's fascinating to see this other aspect of her taste and her persona.It's really interesting that she seems to have wanted to meet the medium where it is, right? She wasn't trying to literary-up Hollywood. I mean, LA can be a bit of a friction. It's not exactly a literary town in the way that some East Coast metropolises can be. It is interesting that she was enamored by the movies. Do you want to speak about what things were like for her when she moved out?Yeah, it is funny because, at the same time, the first two movies that they wrote and produced are The Panic in Needle Park, which is probably the most new Hollywood movie you can imagine. It's about addicts at Needle Park, which is actually right where the 72nd Street subway stop is on the Upper West Side. If people have been there, it's hard to imagine. But that was apparently where they all sat around, and there were a lot of needles. It's apparently the first movie supposedly where someone shoots up live on camera.So it was the '70s. That's amazing.Yes, and it launched Al Pacino's film career! Yeah, it's wild. You watch it and you're just like, “How is this coming from the woman who's about all this arty farty stuff in the movies.” And Play It As It Lays has a very similar, almost avant-garde vibe to it. It's very, very interesting. You see it later on in the work that they made.A key thing to remember about them (and something I didn't realize before I started researching the book)was that Didion and Dunn were novelists who worked in journalism because everybody did. They wrote movies, according to them (you can only go off of what they said. A lot of it is John writing these jaunty articles. He's a very funny writer) because “we had tuition and a mortgage. This is how you pay for it.”This comes up later on, they needed to keep their WGA insurance because John had heart trouble. The best way to have health insurance was to remain in the Writers Guild. Remaining in the Writers Guild means you had to have a certain amount of work produced through union means. They were big union supporters. For them this was not, this was very strictly not an auteurist undertaking. This was not like, “Oh, I'm gonna go write these amazing screenplays that give my concept of the world to the audience.” It's not like Bonnie and Clyding going on here. It's very like, “We wrote these based on some stories that we thought would be cool.”I like that a lot. Like the idea that A Star is Born was like a pot boiler. That's really delightful.Completely. It was totally taken away from them by Streisand and John Peters at some point. But they were like, “Yeah, I mean, you know, it happens. We still got paid.”Yeah, if it can happen to Superman, it can happen to you.It happens to everybody, you know, don't get too precious about it. The important thing is did your novel come out and was it supported by its publisher?So just tracing some of their arcs in Hollywood. Obviously, Didion's one of the most influential writers of her generation, there's a very rich literary tradition. Where do we see her footprint, her imprint in Hollywood? What are some of the ways that we can see her register in Hollywood, or reverberate outside of it?In the business itself, I don't know that she was influential directly. What we see is on the outside of it. So a lot of people were friends. She was like a famous hostess, famous hostess. The New York Public Library archives are set to open at the end of March, of Didion and Dunn's work, which was like completely incidental to my publication date. I just got lucky. There's a bunch of screenplays in there that they worked on that weren't produced. There's also her cookbooks, and I'm very excited to go through those and see that. So you might meet somebody there.Her account of what the vibe was when the Manson murders occurred, which is published in her essay The White Album, is still the one people talk about, even though there are a lot of different ways to come at it. That's how we think about the Manson murders: through her lens. Later on, when she's not writing directly about Hollywood anymore (and not really writing in Hollywood as much) but instead is writing about the headlines, about news events, about sensationalism in the news, she becomes a great media critic. We start to see her taking the things that she learned (having been around Hollywood people, having been on movie sets, having seen how the sausage is made) and she starts writing about politics. In that age, it is Hollywood's logic that you perform for the TV. We have the debates suddenly becoming televised, the conventions becoming televised, we start to see candidates who seem specifically groomed to win because they look good on TV. They're starting to win and rule the day.She writes about Newt Gingrich. Of course, Gingrich was the first politician to figure out how to harness C-SPAN to his own ends — the fact that there were TV cameras on the congressional floor. So she's writing about all of this stuff at a time when you can see other people writing about it. I mean, Neil Postman famously writes about it. But the way Didion does it is always very pegged to reviewing somebody's book, or she's thinking about a particular event, or she's been on the campaign plane or something like that. Like she's been on the inside, but with an outsider's eye.That also crops up in, for instance, her essays. “Sentimental Journeys” is one of her most famous ones. That one's about the case of the Central Park Five, and the jogger who was murdered. Of course, now, we're many decades out from that, and the convictions were vacated. We know about coerced confessions. Also Donald Trump arrives in the middle of that whole thing.But she's actually not interested in the guilt or innocence question, because a lot of people were writing about that. She's interested in how the city of New York and the nation perform themselves for themselves, seeing themselves through the long lens of a movie and telling themselves stories about themselves. You see this over and over in her writing, no matter what she's writing about. I think once she moved away from writing about the business so much, she became very interested in how Hollywood logic had taken over American public life writ large.That's fascinating. Like, again, she spends time in the industry, then basically she can only see it through that lens. Of course, Michael Dukakis in a tank is trying to be a set piece, of course in front of the Berlin Wall, you're finally doing set decoration rather than doing it outside of a brick wall somewhere. You mentioned the New York thing in Performing New York. I have lived in the city for over a decade now. The dumbest thing is when the mayor gets to wear the silly jacket whenever there's a snowstorm that says “Mr. Mayor.” It's all an act in so many ways. I guess that political choreography had to come from somewhere, and it seems like she was documenting a lot of that initial rise.Yeah, I think she really saw it. The question I would ask her, if I could, is how cognizant she was that she kept doing that. As someone who's written for a long time, you don't always recognize that you have the one thing you write about all the time. Other people then bring it up to you and you're like, “Oh, I guess you're right.” Even when you move into her grief memoir phase, which is how I think about the last few original works that she published, she uses movie logic constantly in those.I mean, The Year of Magical Thinking is a cyclical book, she goes over the same events over and over. But if you actually look at the language she's using, she talks about running the tape back, she talks about the edit, she talks about all these things as if she's running her own life through how a movie would tell a story. Maybe she knew very deliberately. She's not a person who does things just haphazardly, but it has the feeling of being so baked into her psyche at this point that she would never even think of trying to escape it.Fascinating.Yeah, that idea that you don't know what you are potentially doing, I've thought about that. I don't know what mine is. But either way. It's such a cool way to look at it. On a certain level, she pretty much succeeded at that, though, right? I think that when people think about Joan Didion, they think about a life that freshens up a movie, right? Like, it workedVery much, yeah. I'm gonna be really curious to see what happens over the next 10 years or so. I've been thinking about figures like Sylvia Plath or women with larger-than-life iconography and reputation and how there's a constant need to relook at their legacies and reinvent and rethink and reimagine them. There's a lot in the life of Didion that I think remains to be explored. I'm really curious to see where people go with it, especially with the opening of these archives and new personal information making its way into the world.Yeah, even just your ability to break some of those stories that have been locked away in archives out sounds like a really exciting addition to the scholarship. Just backing out a little bit, we live in a moment in which the relationship between pop culture and political life is fairly directly intertwined. Setting aside the steel-plated elephant in the room, you and I are friendly because we bonded over this idea that movies really are consequential. Coming out of this book and coming out of reporting on it, what are some of the relevances for today in particular?Yeah, I mean, a lot more than I thought, I guess, five years ago. I started work on the book at the end of Trump One, and it's coming out at the beginning of Trump Two, and there was this period in the middle of a slightly different vibe. But even then I watch TikTok or whatever. You see people talk about “main character energy” or the “vibe shift” or all of romanticizing your life. I would have loved to read a Didion essay on the way that young people sort of view themselves through the logic of the screens they have lived on and the way that has shaped America for a long time.I should confirm this, I don't think she wrote about Obama, or if she did, it was only a little bit. So her political writing ends in George W. Bush's era. I think there's one piece on Obama, and then she's writing about other things. It's just interesting to think about how her ideas of what has happened to political culture in America have seeped into the present day.I think the Hollywood logic, the cinematic logic has given way to reality TV logic. That's very much the logic of the Trump world, right? Still performing for cameras, but the cameras have shifted. The way that we want things from the cameras has shifted, too. Reality TV is a lot about creating moments of drama where they may or may not actually exist and bombarding you with them. I think that's a lot of what we see and what we feel now. I have to imagine she would think about it that way.There is one interesting essay that I feel has only recently been talked about. It's at the beginning of my book, too. It was in a documentary, and Gia Tolentino wrote about it recently. It's this essay she wrote in 2000 about Martha Stewart and about Martha Stewart's website. It feels like the 2000s was like, “What is this website thing? Why are people so into it?” But really, it's an essay about parasocial relationships that people develop (with women in particular) who they invent stories around and how those stories correspond to greater American archetypes. It's a really interesting essay, not least because I think it's an essay also about people's parasocial relationships with Joan Didion.So the rise of her celebrity in the 21st century, where people know who she is and carry around a tote bag, but don't really know what they're getting themselves into is very interesting to me. I think it is also something she thought about quite a bit, while also consciously courting it.Yeah, I mean, that makes a ton of sense. For someone who was so adept at using cinematic language to describe her own life with every living being having a camera directly next to them at all times. It seems like we are very much living in a world that she had at least put a lot of thought into, even if the technology wasn't around for her to specifically address it.Yes, completely.On that note, where can folks find the book? Where can folks find you? What's the elevator pitch for why they ought to check this out? Joan Didion superfan or just rather novice?Exactly! I think this book is not just for the fans, let me put it that way. Certainly, I think anyone who considers themselves a Didion fan will have a lot to enjoy here. The stuff you didn't know, hadn't read or just a new way to think through her cultural impact. But also, this is really a book that's as much for people who are just interested in thinking about the world we live in today a little critically. It's certainly a biography of American political culture as much as it is of Didion. There's a great deal of Hollywood history in there as well. Thinking about that sweep of the American century and change is what the book is doing. It's very, very, very informed by what I do in my day job as a movie critic at The New York Times. Thinking about what movies mean, what do they tell us about ourselves? I think this is what this book does. I have been told it's very fun to read. So I'm happy about that. It's not ponderous at all, which is good. It's also not that long.It comes out March 11th from Live Right, which is a Norton imprint. There will be an audiobook at the end of May that I am reading, which I'm excited about. And I'll be on tour for a large amount of March on the East Coast. Then in California, there's a virtual date, and there's a good chance I'll be popping up elsewhere all year, too. Those updates will be on my social feeds, which are all @alissawilkinson on whatever platform except X, which is fine because I don't really post there anymore.Alyssa, thank you so much for coming on.Thank you so much.Edited by Crystal Wang.If you have anything you'd like to see in this Sunday special, shoot me an email. Comment below! Thanks for reading, and thanks so much for supporting Numlock.Thank you so much for becoming a paid subscriber! Send links to me on Twitter at @WaltHickey or email me with numbers, tips or feedback at walt@numlock.news. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.numlock.com/subscribe

Rich Steinmeier offers a candid perspective of LPL's journey and how the founding core principles remain a pillar of the business today, even as evolutionary changes have made it one of the hottest firms in the industry.

Dynamo brought epic magic into a lot of people's lives, but now Steven Frayne is taking off the mask and choosing to notice the moments of magic he's experienced around him. In particular, that's the people – friends, family, doctors, strangers – who've helped him find joy again after hitting rock bottom. In this chat with Fearne, Steven talks about the devastating reality of trialling different medication for Crohn's and the effect this has on mental health, as well as what he's learnt from experiencing so much physical pain. Can we choose to connect over pain rather than isolating ourselves from others? Steven also explains how being an easy target for bullies at school meant he learnt how to problem solve and hustle, but what do you do when success comes and you don't know how to cope with it? Steven's show, Up Close and Magical, is at The Underbelly in Soho, and is opening on the 28th March. CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains frank chat about suicidal ideation so do take care while listening. If you liked this episode of Happy Place, you might also like: Kesha Ben West Adam Pearson Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On Episode 809 of WHAT THE TRUCK?!?, Dooner is talking about the massive surge in cargo theft that is plaguing the freight industry. Overhaul's Danny Ramon shares the company's latest report, which shows an astounding 49% increase in cargo thefts in 2024 compared to 2023. Is 2025 on track to set an even higher record, and what can fleets do to protect themselves? We'll get into it. Driver training standards could change drastically under President Donald Trump. Commercial Vehicle Training Association's Andrew Poliakoff talks about the latest changes and executive orders that could impact the way you hire drivers. You think you haul heavy? Dooner headed down to NASA's Kennedy Space Center to meet the largest self-propelled land vehicle on Earth, NASA's crawler. We'll find out how this 60-year-old monster rig is bringing Americans back to the moon. Plus, Squats Across America returns; de minimis ruling clarified; final destination at the gate; and more.  Catch new shows live at noon EDT Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays on FreightWaves LinkedIn, Facebook, X or YouTube, or on demand by looking up WHAT THE TRUCK?!? on your favorite podcast player and at 5 p.m. Eastern on SiriusXM's Road Dog Trucking Channel 146. Watch on YouTube Check out the WTT merch store Subscribe to the WTT newsletter Apple Podcasts Spotify More FreightWaves Podcasts Visit our sponsor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Episode 809 of WHAT THE TRUCK?!?, Dooner is talking about the massive surge in cargo theft that is plaguing the freight industry. Overhaul's Danny Ramon shares the company's latest report, which shows an astounding 49% increase in cargo thefts in 2024 compared to 2023. Is 2025 on track to set an even higher record, and what can fleets do to protect themselves? We'll get into it. Driver training standards could change drastically under President Donald Trump. Commercial Vehicle Training Association's Andrew Poliakoff talks about the latest changes and executive orders that could impact the way you hire drivers. You think you haul heavy? Dooner headed down to NASA's Kennedy Space Center to meet the largest self-propelled land vehicle on Earth, NASA's crawler. We'll find out how this 60-year-old monster rig is bringing Americans back to the moon. Plus, Squats Across America returns; de minimis ruling clarified; final destination at the gate; and more.  Catch new shows live at noon EDT Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays on FreightWaves LinkedIn, Facebook, X or YouTube, or on demand by looking up WHAT THE TRUCK?!? on your favorite podcast player and at 5 p.m. Eastern on SiriusXM's Road Dog Trucking Channel 146. Watch on YouTube Check out the WTT merch store Subscribe to the WTT newsletter Apple Podcasts Spotify More FreightWaves Podcasts Visit our sponsor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today in Lighting is brought to you by Current. Minimize energy in your data center with Current's advanced lighting and controls. Learn more. Highlights today include: The National Lighting Bureau Announces “Simply Light”, The Latest Get a Grip on Lighting Podcast Episode Features Jason Schembri, Up Close with Jared Blackney, Pharos Architectural Controls: 20 Years of Innovation and Growth.

Is Satan REALLY A Fallen Angel? Part 3 (Episode 239) – We continue our conversation on the origin of Satan by looking again at Isaiah 14. Joined by Jesse Dunn, we discuss whether or not the name "Lucifer" (Isaiah 14:12) is actually a reference to Satan, or simply a nickname for the King of Babylon.

ASMR the most gentle up-close ear brushing for sleepAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Introducing MJ Jefferson, Exectutive Producer and Creative Director of Stories of Vision Loss podcast.Record an Audio Message!Stay connected and share your story: storiesofvisionloss@gmail.comCheck out a list of our guests: www.storiesofvisionloss.com/guestsJoin Supporter's Club - $5/month

Up Close and Personal

I’m excited to bring you a conversation today with a very special guest, someone who is known for her bold voice, her authenticity, and her commitment to empowering others.You may know her from her work as a media personality, podcaster, and all-around cultural commentator. Joining me today is the one and only, Scottie Beam.Scottie is not only a powerhouse on the mic, but she’s also a trailblazer for a younger generation of women in media, especially when it comes to destigmatizing the conversations surrounding self-care. Whether she’s sharing insights on her new YouTube series, “Hi, I’m Uninspired” or just being her unapologetically real self on social media, Scottie has a way of making people feel seen, heard, and understood. Today, we're diving into a conversation about self-love, mental wellness, and how we navigate the intersections of identity and mental health, especially in the fast-paced world we live in today. About the Podcast The Therapy for Black Girls Podcast is a weekly conversation with Dr. Joy Harden Bradford, a licensed Psychologist in Atlanta, Georgia, about all things mental health, personal development, and all the small decisions we can make to become the best possible versions of ourselves. Resources & Announcements Grab your copy of Sisterhood Heals. Vote for Therapy for Black Girls in the Best Lifestyle/Self-Help Podcast category of the NAACP Image Awards! Where to Find Scottie Website Instagram Stay Connected Is there a topic you'd like covered on the podcast? Submit it at therapyforblackgirls.com/mailbox. If you're looking for a therapist in your area, check out the directory at https://www.therapyforblackgirls.com/directory. Take the info from the podcast to the next level by joining us in the Therapy for Black Girls Sister Circle community.therapyforblackgirls.com Grab your copy of our guided affirmation and other TBG Merch at therapyforblackgirls.com/shop. The hashtag for the podcast is #TBGinSession. Make sure to follow us on social media: Twitter: @therapy4bgirls Instagram: @therapyforblackgirls Facebook: @therapyforblackgirls Our Production Team Executive Producers: Dennison Bradford & Maya Cole Howard Senior Producer: Ellice Ellis Producer: Tyree RushSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode Dallas interviews Nick! To watch FULL EPISODES and get ALL RUMBLE PREMIUM content AD FREE, join by clicking the red RUMBLE PREMIUM button – enter Promo Code MUGCLUB and get $10 off an annual subscription! https://rumble.com/c/TheNickDiPaoloShow/exclusive MERCH - https://shop.nickdip.com/ TOUR DATES AND MORE - https://nickdip.com 2/20/2025 - Bricktown Comedy Club – Tulsa, OK 2/21/2025 - Funny Bone Westport, St. Louis, MO 3/13/2025 - Hyena's, Albuquerque, NM 4/25/2025 - Cohoes Music Hall, Cohoes, NY 5/15-16/2025 - Zanies, Rosemont, IL SOCIALS - https://bio.site/nickdipaolo

This special series is a joint production by David Pepper and Resolute Square. The book, “Trump's Project 2025: Up Close And Personal” by David Pepper, is available for purchase at https://a.co/d/adWcJ4S. Special guest host Stuart Stevens introduces the topic of today's episode, Trump's disastrous first week and the incoming deportation calamity likely to take place. The story that leads off Chapter 6 of Trump's Project 2025: Up Close and Personal, Mass Deportation Disaster captures the struggles of 12-year-old Alvaro and his mother in a fictional detention center in West Texas. Alvaro expresses his hunger to his mother, who is too weak to properly care for herself. As they navigate the deteriorating conditions of the camp—overcrowded with diminishing food supplies, hostile guards, and a sense of fear from both authorities and fellow detainees—Alvaro reflects on lost friendships and longing for better times. His mother's health declines as she sacrifices for him, giving him her piece of bread despite needing it more herself. This highlights Alvaro's growing awareness of their desperate situation. He learns from a friend, Manuel, about possible escape routes and decides to plan his own escape to ensure both his and his mother's safety. In the second half of Chapter 6, in a parallel narrative, soldier Jake Caldwell describes the chaos of the detention center from his perspective. As he witnesses the overwhelming influx of women and children, he feels the systemic failures of the camp. The environment strips away humanity, leading children to escape in search of freedom. As both narratives unfold, Alvaro attempts to escape the camp, filled with hope for a future where he can see his mother smile again even as Jake grapples with the moral dilemmas of his role in the oppressive system. Their stories intertwine themes of resilience, sacrifice, and the harsh realities faced by both detainees and guards in the unjust conditions of the camp. We'd like to thank all the artists who volunteered their time to make this episode: Mark Ruffalo and Andrea Guidry who read the chapters and others who contributed character voices.   Sound design by Marilys Ernst and Jon Moser. Trump's Project 2025:Up Close and Personal is available on all the podcast apps and at 2025pod.com. We'd like to thank all the artists who volunteered their time to make this episode: Laurie Burke, Leigh McGowan who read the chapters & Audrey Hakes, Joe Walsh, & others who contributed character voices. Sound design by Marilys Ernst and Jonathan Moser. Trump's Project 2025: Up Close and Personal was written by David Pepper and produced by Pepper, Melissa Jo Peltier and Jay Feldman and is a production of Ovington Avenue Productions and The Bill Press Pod. Follow Resolute Square: Instagram Twitter TikTok Find out more at Resolute Square Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This special series is a joint production by David Pepper and Resolute Square. The book, “Trump's Project 2025: Up Close And Personal” by David Pepper, is available for purchase at https://a.co/d/adWcJ4S. Special guest host Stuart Stevens starts by detailing the potential horrors to come from Trump's cabinet. From Kash Patel, Pam Bondi and the rest, this is a group specifically designed to carry out the President's unchecked retribution against his political enemies. In Chapter 5, Part one, the fictional characters Congresswoman Louise Getty and Senator Wade Stiller, former rivals, meet at the World War II Memorial in Washington D.C. They reflect on their pasts and express concern over a hostile political climate under Trump's second term, feeling fear and paranoia about being surveilled and targeted by the government. Their conversation reveals a sense of vulnerability as they confront the reality that many of their colleagues have abandoned principles out of fear. Louise recalls the intense political maneuvering and betrayals leading up to and following the January 6 insurrection. In Part Two, Woody Nuxhall, the newly appointed head of the Treason and Political Crime Section of the DOJ, oversees his zealous young team of prosecutors, eager to pursue investigations and vendettas against political enemies. The group discusses tactics to surveil and undermine former colleagues and opposition figures, planning a strategy fueled by partisan loyalty and vengeance, while embracing a radical transformation of the DOJ's role in politics. The narrative emphasizes the deeply entrenched fear and moral compromise within Washington's political landscape, contrasting the idealistic memories of past sacrifices with the present-day weaponization of governmental power. Overall, the story highlights the erosion of democratic norms, and the personal toll this environment takes on the individuals involved.  While these stories are fictional, they are based on Trump's own words and Project 2025. In fact, the New York Times, just last week reported just how Trump would use the Justice Department to go after his enemies. We'd like to thank the artists who contributed their time to make this episode: Richard Schiff and Morgan Fairchild read the chapters and others who contributed character voices. Sound Design by Marilys Ernst and Jon Moser. Trump's Project 2025:Up Close and Personal is available on all the podcast apps and at 2025pod.com. We'd like to thank all the artists who volunteered their time to make this episode: Laurie Burke, Leigh McGowan who read the chapters & Audrey Hakes, Joe Walsh, & others who contributed character voices. Sound design by Marilys Ernst and Jonathan Moser. Trump's Project 2025: Up Close and Personal was written by David Pepper and produced by Pepper, Melissa Jo Peltier and Jay Feldman and is a production of Ovington Avenue Productions and The Bill Press Pod. Follow Resolute Square: Instagram Twitter TikTok Find out more at Resolute Square Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This special series is a joint production by David Pepper and Resolute Square. The book, “Trump's Project 2025: Up Close And Personal” by David Pepper, is available for purchase at https://a.co/d/adWcJ4S. Special guest host Stuart Stevens kicks off the episode reminding us of the true danger of RFK Jr. and Trump's willingness to put the nation's health at risk with his confirmation. So what could happen if RFK is confirmed? Today's story helps illustrate that potential reality. This episode tells the fictional story of a middle school that opens its doors to unvaccinated students after a possible second -term President Trump eliminates Federal funding for schools with vaccine mandates. The story follows the school nurse, Stephanie Morris, as she navigates the influx of unvaccinated students and the resulting disease outbreaks that spread rapidly through the school and community. The narrative illustrates the real-world implications of the president's policy, with outbreaks of diseases like measles, whooping cough, and the flu causing hospitalizations and even deaths among vulnerable students and staff. The story highlights the challenges faced by the school nurse in trying to protect the health of all students, including her own daughter who has an autoimmune condition, without the backing of mandatory vaccination policies. Overall, the episode demonstrates how Donald Trump's promise to defund schools with vaccine mandates could have devastating consequences for children's health and safety. Trump's Project 2025: Up Close and Personal is available on all the podcast apps and at 2025pod.com. We'd like to thank all the artists who volunteered their time to make this episode: Laurie Burke, Leigh McGowan who read the chapters & Audrey Hakes, Joe Walsh, & others who contributed character voices. Sound design by Marilys Ernst and Jonathan Moser. Trump's Project 2025: Up Close and Personal was written by David Pepper and produced by Pepper, Melissa Jo Peltier and Jay Feldman and is a production of Ovington Avenue Productions and The Bill Press Pod. Follow Resolute Square: Instagram Twitter TikTok Find out more at Resolute Square Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the first episode in my winter 2025 Africa hunting mini-series and I have a special guest on the show with me today: Tanya Blake. Depending on how long you've been listening to the show, you may recognize that name because she was Phil Massaro's PH on the leopard hunt he and I discussed in episode 293. Tanya is a Zimbabwe based Professional Hunter who hunts a number of different species, but leopard are her specialty and we'll be talking all about hunting Mr. Spots in this episode. Subscribe to The Big Game Hunting Podcast on YouTube here Sponsor: Get in touch with Tanya Blake to book that leopard hunt in Zimbabwe you've always dreamed of. She is a top notch Professional Hunter who has access to some fantastic leopard hunting areas. Email her at tanyablakesafaris@gmail.com or call her at +263 77 326 0977 to learn more. Be sure to tell her you heard about her from The Big Game Hunting Podcast and be sure to email me at john@thebiggamehuntingblog.com and let me know how your hunt went!

This special series is a joint production by David Pepper and Resolute Square. The book, “Trump's Project 2025: Up Close And Personal” by David Pepper, is available for purchase at https://a.co/d/adWcJ4S. To start, special guest host Stuart Stevens weighs in on day one of the confirmation hearings and the abomination that is the slate of nominees Trump has put forward for some of the most important positions in the Executive Branch. In Chapter 3, the fact-based fictional story of Dr. Yvette Hardman and JJ Newsom depicts the dismantling of expertise and science-based decision making in the federal government under a possible second Trump administration guided by Project 2025. Dr. Hardman, an experienced infectious disease expert, is removed from her position at the CDC and replaced by JJ Newsom, an unqualified political loyalist with no relevant experience. This reflects Project 2025's plan to fill government positions with partisan appointees rather than nonpartisan experts. The new administration rejects science-based pandemic response recommendations from Dr. Hardman instead prioritizing political and economic considerations over public health. This aligns with Project 2025's directives to limit the CDC's ability to make public health recommendations. The story highlights the Trump administration's hostility towards science and the displacement of experienced civil servants, which Project 2025 seeks to accelerate through measures like the "Schedule F" executive order to reclassify and fire federal employees. Overall, the narrative illustrates how a second Trump term guided by Project 2025 would undermine the role of expertise and independent scientific advice in government, with potentially disastrous consequences for public health and safety. Trump's Project 2025: Up Close and Personal is available on all the podcast apps and at 2025pod.com. We'd also like to thank all the artists who volunteered their time to make this episode: CCH Pounder, Richard Schiff and Jason Kravits who read the chapters and Omid Abtahi, Tom Nichols, Laurie Burke and Joanne Carducci who did the voices. Sound design by Marilys Ernst and Jon Moser. Trump's Project 2025: Up Close and Personal was written by David Pepper and produced by Pepper, Melissa Jo Peltier and Jay Feldman and is a production of Ovington Avenue Productions and The Bill Press Pod. Follow Resolute Square: Instagram Twitter TikTok Find out more at Resolute Square Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This special series is a joint production by David Pepper and Resolute Square. The book, “Trump's Project 2025: Up Close And Personal” by David Pepper, is available for purchase at https://a.co/d/adWcJ4S. Chapter Two of Trump's Project 2025: Up Close and Personal depicts the personal story of Eve, a nurse struggling with infertility, whose treatment is threatened by the new president's executive order banning certain fertility treatments. The episode explores how the president's policies would impact everyday Americans, particularly women and families, by interfering with reproductive freedom and the right to self-determination. The author of the serialized novel “2025,” upon which this podcast series is based, David Pepper, highlights how the fictional story is directly based on the policies outlined in the Trump's Project 2025 and the president's own words, underscoring the very real and devastating consequences a second Trump term and the implementation of Project 2025 could have. You can read Chapter Two of David Pepper's “2025: A Novel” at davidpepper.substack.com/p/2025-a-novel-chapter-2 Trump's Project 2025: Up Close and Personal is available on all the podcast apps and at 2025pod.com. We'd also like to thank all the artists who volunteered their time to make this episode. Heather Thomas, J. Smith Cameron, Omid Abtahi, Kirk Acevedo and Bayo Akinfemi. Audio finishing by Marilyn Ernst. This series is produced by David Pepper, Melissa Jo Peltier and Jay Feldman. Trump's Project 2025: Up Close and Personal is a production of Ovington Avenue Productions. Follow Resolute Square: Instagram Twitter TikTok Find out more at Resolute Square Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This special series is a joint production by David Pepper and Resolute Square. The book, “Trump's Project 2025: Up Close And Personal” by David Pepper, is available for purchase at https://a.co/d/adWcJ4S. Chapter One of Trump's Project 2025: Up Close and Personal depicts how the lives of everyday Americans would be impacted by the policies outlined in Trumps's Project 2025 and the return of Donald Trump to power. The fictional story follows Ammon Maher, a college student and immigrant, as he is detained and deported without due process due to his involvement in past campus protests. This narrative directly reflects Trump's campaign promises to crack down on student protesters and his administration's policies that target undocumented immigrants, including so-called "dreamers." The author of the serialized “2025: A Novel” upon which this podcast series is based, David Pepper, highlights how these policies, if implemented, would violate civil liberties and human rights in an alarming and unjust manner. The podcast series aims to raise awareness of the very real dangers posed by Trump's extremist agenda and the disturbing implications of "Project 2025" for the American people. You can read  Chapter One of David Pepper's “2025: A Novel” at davidpepper.substack.com/p/2025-a-novel Follow Resolute Square: Instagram Twitter TikTok Find out more at Resolute Square Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices