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USAID, a known front for the CIA, has announced a new five-year project to explore the spillover of viruses from animals to humans. Isn't that how we wound up with COVID? SkyWatchTV was banned by YouTube! Please follow SkyWatchTV on Rumble: www.rumble.com/skywatchtv 5) It will cost more to heat American homes this winter; 4) USAID announces DEEP VZN project to find and experiment with animal viruses; 3) Vaccine mandates causing personnel issues for first responders; 2) Virginia parents outraged after “boy in a skirt” arrested for second sexual assault at school on a girl in women's rest room; 1) California discouraging single-family homes, bans gas-powered lawn equipment.

In this deep dive on resilience, Professor Daniel Aldrich gives a fascinating overview of different ways of thinking about resilience—focussing in particular on the kind of resilience that allows communities to recover from disasters in a way that brings together resources -- and allows the communities to rebuild themselves so they're not as vulnerable as they were before the shock—so they can collaborate, communicate, and work together in a more effective way. Daniel discusses his research which has identified the critical importance of social bonds as a key factor determining how communities deal with disasters—too often neglected due to an overemphasis on infrastructural resilience. A fascinating interview, packed with rich insights and research findings-providing a multidimensional perspective on resilience. Daniel Aldrich is professor of political science and Director of the Security and Resilience Studies Program at Northeastern University. A main body of his research focussed on recovery after natural disasters. His most recent book, Building Resilience: Social Capital in Post-Disaster Recovery, highlights how relationships among people in a disaster zone are a critical engine for recovery after a disaster. Daniel has held posts as a Fulbright Research Fellow and an Abe Fellow at Tokyo University and as an AAAS Science and Technology Fellow with USAID.  He is a contributor to the New York Times, CNN, The Conversation, and the Asahi Shinbun, among other media.    

Dr. Leana Wen joined us this week to explore her personal history and its revelations, laid out in remarkably candid detail in her newly released memoir, Lifelines: A Doctor's Journey in the Fight for Public Health.  And to speak to the most pressing current challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. Her childhood struggles, as a young immigrant Chinese girl living amid insecurity, taught powerful lessons about poverty, race, and health. Her tenure as Health Commissioner in Baltimore, operating in close partnership with the late Congressman Elijah Cummings, opened the way to confront opioid addiction, stigma, maternal and infant mortality, and the acute vulnerabilities of youth. In her new life in the print and cable mediascape, she follows the advice of former Senator Barbara Mikulski: “do what you are best at – and needed for.” The Biden administration needs to up its game with the public: “It's not enough just to get the science right.” It is about values, communication, and public trust. America's hardened polarization -- surrounding vaccines, masking, and distancing -- is too advanced to fix: it is best to focus on engaging individual by individual. Listen to learn more.  Dr. Leana Wen is an emergency physician and public health professor at George Washington University. She is a contributing columnist at the Washington Post and a CNN medical analyst. She's served as Baltimore's Health Commissioner.  

Carmen Paun, a dynamic, fresh media voice on global health in Washington, shares her personal and career journey from Romania to Brussels, and on to her arrival in Washington D.C. one year ago, amid the pandemic, to launch POLITICO Global Pulse. This past summer, while visiting family in a small village in the Romanian countryside, she was “shocked” to discover only 10% vaccinated at that time, the pandemic seen as “all just a conspiracy.” The pandemic was the trigger in creating POLITICO Global Pulse. In its first year, it did find its audience and voice quickly. What to make of the U.S. Global Covid Summit? It re-established that “the U.S. was in charge,” now the challenge lies in execution. Faith in American leadership has diminished, while African officials remain frustrated by slow delivery and the West's export restrictions. Will the EU-US Task Force bring great transparency and accountability? “Hard to say… How fast is this going to happen?” The turn to boosters likely creates “a vicious cycle” that could leave low and lower-middle-income countries still struggling to access vaccines. Will Africa be left far behind? No. Vaccines are finally arriving. India is reopening exports. Don't expect the push by South Africa and India to suspend intellectual property to succeed. Her overall prognosis? “It is hard to be optimistic” Give a listen to learn more. Carmen Paun is a health writer at POLITICO and author of POLITICO Global Pulse.

Doug O'Brien, President and CEO of the National Cooperative Business Association CLUSA International (NCBA CLUSA), John Torres, VP of Communication and Public Relations at NCBA/CLUSA, and Paul Hazen, Executive Director of the U.S. Overseas Cooperative Development Council (OCDC)discuss the 2021 Cooperative IMPACT Conference. Follow link to register: https://web.cvent.com/event/c9469aae-156e-42c1-9c44-ec4ff9a4bf4c/regProcessStep1 NCBA CLUSA's Cooperative IMPACT Conference will be held October 4-8, 2021. This annual conference provides an unparalleled platform to reenergize the cooperative movement and galvanize its champions around building an inclusive economy. The conference is a hybrid event this year and includes a robust lineup of virtual programming with select live events taking place at the National Press Club on October 7 and 8. With five days of programming, 40 sessions and close to 100 speakers, IMPACT 2021 will explore how our cooperative identity finds expression. Whether working to dismantle racism, build resilience in the face of climate change or preserve small businesses during a pandemic, last year reminded us that cooperatives have the greatest impact when cooperators live up to their identity. IMPACT sessions will challenge cooperators everywhere to deepen their understanding of the values and principles that truly make cooperative enterprise unique. For the third year, NCBA CLUSA is partnering with the U.S. Overseas Cooperative Development Council to bring a rich and diverse International Track to the IMPACT Conference. The dedicated international programming—available to development practitioners free of charge— will cover entrepreneurship, climate change and co-op principles in practice. Made possible by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), these sessions are sponsored by OCDC and its members. NCBA CLUSA works to build a better world and a more inclusive economy that empowers people to contribute to shared prosperity and well-being for themselves and future generations. By leveraging the shared resources of the cooperative movement, NCBA CLUSA seeks to engage, partner with and empower people from all walks of life—particularly those left behind by a shifting economy and facing the greatest economic and societal barriers. It achieves this vision through collaborative partnerships in development, advocacy, public awareness and thought leadership. OCDC brings together nine organizations committed to building a more prosperous world through cooperatives. Its mission is to champion, advocate and promote effective international cooperative development. Its members' international activities are powered by grants from the Cooperative Development Program of USAID. Together, they promote sustainability and self-reliance through local ownership.

Allan "Alonzo" Wind is a former Senior Foreign Service Officer from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) having worked on diplomatic assignments in Peru, Nicaragua, Angola, Nigeria, Iraq, Afghanistan and South Africa. He provided oversight to U.S. government foreign aid development and humanitarian assistance, and supported U.S. Ambassadors as their senior development officer on multiple U.S. Embassy Country-Teams. In South Africa, he helped establish the Southern Africa Regional Leadership Center as part of President Obama's Young African Leadership Initiative, and contributed to other youth development efforts and business incubators. In Alonzo's diplomatic work, he has been shot at, arrested and jailed, teargassed, threatened, almost died in the jungle, and been in a number of other dangerous situations that include a terrorist car bombing in Peru and an expulsion order in Bolivia. All of these experiences and adventures are examined in Andean Adventures: An Unexpected Search for Meaning, Purpose and Discovery Across Three Countries an Amazon best-seller, and we cover a number of them in our episode. We also discuss the personal aspects of raising a family overseas and being away when working in hot-spots. We discussed his thoughts as to the Peace Corps' value in the world, and what it means to him. Alonzo talked about his early days in Common Cause with Rahm Emanuel in Chicago and what he sees as the qualities that someone needs in order to be successful in the world of development and international service, and his thoughts on ways to encourage more young people to consider becoming involved in national service. Alonzo discussed how development organizations like USAID can better ensure a more cohesive, “human-centered development” approach and the semi-controversial concept of self-reliance in the development space. He noted some of the ways that development actors can better ensure that all voices are heard and he share his thoughts as to my questions about what seems to be a more isolationist or jingoistic US perspective these days, than a decade ago and why it is Americans should care about what is happening overseas. He also opined as to the importance of modern foreign aid and what changes he'd like to see. I felt a certain kinship in the overlapping areas of our work over the years, over the world, and sharing many friends—he is indeed a veritable Kevin Bacon of humanitarian intervention and development sphere. It's a great conversation not to be missed.

Dave Simnick is the CEO and co-founder of SoapBox Soaps, a company that works to empower customers to change the world through everyday, quality purchases. SoapBox products are currently shelved in tens of thousands of stores across the United States and beyond. As an Eagle Scout, Dave's dream was to found for-profit companies with a social mission at their core. Since then, he has worked as either an intern or consultant to USAID, the U.S. Army, Michelle Rhee, the U.S. Senate, and was a Teach for America educator in Northern Philadelphia. Dave's got a house full of notebooks; he doesn't like to let ideas get away from him. Give him any concept, and Dave will start tinkering with it. He's worked on various sides of the startup industry: helping companies expand, getting the ball rolling with funding and publicity, making connections, and putting ideas together from the ground up Read the show notes here: https://bwmissions.com/one-away-podcast/

Richie is joined by Yohan Tengra and Charlie Robinson.Why did the Indian government stop using the drug Ivermectin to treat covid patients even though it had proven to be highly effective? Did it have anything to do with the fact that many of the Indian government's scientific advisers have strong links to The Gates Foundation, The World Bank, USAID and The Rockefeller Foundation? Yohan Tengra is a an Indian journalist and activist and lays it out for Richie.  Charlie Robinson is an author and broadcaster. He's got a brand new book entitled "HYPOCRAZY - Surviving In A World Of Cultural Double Standards." It's an enlightening and funny look at the culture wars, identity politics, mass media manipulation and the global response to covid-19. www.theoctopusofglobalcontrol.com 

In a recent New Yorker ‘Letter from Biden's Washington,' Susan Glasser delivers a stark indictment: Trumpists and Republican leadership are consciously keeping enough people resisting the Biden administration's efforts to control the virus “to keep the disease wreaking havoc.” Why that conclusion now? “It is no accident” that 1 in 500 Americans have died, now totaling over 687,000. It's becoming obvious that President Biden cannot inoculate Americans against Fox News. In the meantime, the Biden administration, “on both foreign and domestic fronts, remains a jumble of aspirations and retains a haze of uncertainty about how to achieve them.” That directly shapes its international approach to Covid-19, including the recent Global Covid-19 Summit organized by President Biden on the margins of the UN General Assembly. It is “a statement of the obvious” that nearly half of the country is dedicated to the failure of the Biden administration. When a “flaming dumpster fire” pandemic continues in the United States -- the fourth wave fueled by vaccine refusals – the resulting domestic crisis gravely limits the ability of the United States to be a world leader on Covid-19. On the pandemic as well as Afghanistan and other foreign policy priorities, the administration is taking an approach that is far less multilateral, alliance-focused, and consultative than expected. Why? The answer is not yet clear: if the administration is simply overwhelmed by demands, or if this approach is a conscious internal “predilection.” Does she agree we are drifting inexorably towards a US-China cold war bifurcation of the world? “Yes, I do.” Do we urgently need a national commission on the pandemic? “Absolutely.” “You cannot escape history.” Please listen to know more. Susan Glasser is a staff writer at The New Yorker, author of Letters from Biden's Washington

On COI #166, Scott Spaulding – host of Why I'm Antiwar – returns to the show for the third installment of the 'Villains of the Afghan War' series. Scott breaks down the role of David Kilcullen, the godfather of counterinsurgency under the Bush administration. Kilcullen found himself in a high-ranking position that he exploited to push his own COIN policy. While his approach failed and the Afghan War ended in disaster, Kilcullen is still named as an expert and continues to profit off the military-industrial complex.  Scott discusses USAID official James Derleth's part in the Afghan nation-building effort. Derleth forced American soldiers to ask Afghan citizens questions and fill out forms. The information was useless – but worse, it put US soldiers in danger. He is now a professor who recently spoke at the prestigious West Point military academy.  Scott also takes aim at Paul Sommers and Ryan Brewster. While working for the USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service, the two headed a project that sought to use American soldiers to teach Afghans new farming techniques. However, the Afghans already knew how to farm and the US war had simply made it impossible to grow the fruit trees Sommers planned. In the end, Sommers and Brewster netted no improvement for average Afghans and racked up an expensive tab for American taxpayers in the process. Odysee Rumble  Donate LBRY Credits bTTEiLoteVdMbLS7YqDVSZyjEY1eMgW7CP Donate Bitcoin 36PP4kT28jjUZcL44dXDonFwrVVDHntsrk Donate Bitcoin Cash Qp6gznu4xm97cj7j9vqepqxcfuctq2exvvqu7aamz6 Patreon Subscribe Star YouTube Facebook  Twitter  MeWe Apple Podcast  Amazon Music Google Podcasts Spotify iHeart Radio Support Our Sponsor Visit Paloma Verde and use code PEACE for 25% off our CBD

On COI #166, Scott Spaulding – host of Why I'm Antiwar – returns to the show for the third installment of the 'Villains of the Afghan War' series. Scott breaks down the role of David Kilcullen, the godfather of counterinsurgency under the Bush administration. Kilcullen found himself in a high-ranking position that he exploited to push his own COIN policy. While his approach failed and the Afghan War ended in disaster, Kilcullen is still named as an expert and continues to profit off the military-industrial complex.  Scott discusses USAID official James Derleth's part in the Afghan nation-building effort. Derleth forced American soldiers to ask Afghan citizens questions and fill out forms. The information was useless – but worse, it put US soldiers in danger. He is now a professor who recently spoke at the prestigious West Point military academy.  Scott also takes aim at Paul Sommers and Ryan Brewster. While working for the USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service, the two headed a project that sought to use American soldiers to teach Afghans new farming techniques. However, the Afghans already knew how to farm and the US war had simply made it impossible to grow the fruit trees Sommers planned. In the end, Sommers and Brewster netted no improvement for average Afghans and racked up an expensive tab for American taxpayers in the process. Odysee Rumble  Donate LBRY Credits bTTEiLoteVdMbLS7YqDVSZyjEY1eMgW7CP Donate Bitcoin 36PP4kT28jjUZcL44dXDonFwrVVDHntsrk Donate Bitcoin Cash Qp6gznu4xm97cj7j9vqepqxcfuctq2exvvqu7aamz6 Patreon Subscribe Star YouTube Facebook  Twitter  MeWe Apple Podcast  Amazon Music Google Podcasts Spotify iHeart Radio Support Our Sponsor Visit Paloma Verde and use code PEACE for 25% off our CBD

Nancy Ostrowski experienced the events of 9/11 first-hand, which inspired her to embark on a journey to a more satisfying, new career with USAID.  See also her article in the Sept 2021 Foreign Service Journal, "Getting Off the X", and her book, Unplugged, published under the name Nancy Whitner-Reiter.

Dr. Monica Gandhi toured the landscape with us. The recent recall of California Governor Gavin Newsom has bipartisan roots, in dissatisfaction with the “lockdown mentality” that closed playgrounds and parks, and kept San Francisco's schools shuttered for 18 months. It was to a significant degree a “referendum on the illiberal liberals.” Once “the power of vaccines” came into force, however, California pioneered mandates, passports, and expanded testing; achieved over 80% vaccine coverage; and drove cases and deaths to exceptional lows. The future? “Immunity is the path out” to achieve control over Covid-19. Big concerns? Confused messaging around boosters terrifies the vaccinated and makes the unvaccinated believe less in vaccines. We are also witnessing rising intolerance: in our politically polarized debates over schools, vaccines, masks, and boosters, scientific discourse has lost balance and nuance.   Dr.Monica Gandhi is Professor of Medicine and Associate Chief of the Division of HIV, Infectious Diseases and Global Medicine at UCSF/San Francisco General Hospital. She also serves as the medical director of the HIV Clinic at SFGH, the famous “Ward 86.”

Dr. LaQuandra S. Nesbitt, Director of the DC Department of Health, returned as our guest to share her reflections. Her view of President Biden's six-point plan? Tying vaccination to sustained employment is the next phase: mandates will bring about an uptake in vaccines. The rising emphasis on monoclonal antibodies is a “huge initiative” that brings about a reduction in hospitalizations. The President negotiating access at-cost to over-the-counter test kits is a similarly big step. DC has avoided the worst outcomes seen elsewhere in the United States by “planning for the worst.” Plus there has been relative unity: “residents have done what we have asked them to do.” “At times of adversity, this city rises to the occasion.” Top challenges? Vaccine disinformation regarding infertility creates “myths” that remain “inexplicably” powerful. Managing confusion over boosters is “tricky” in the absence of a “single voice, single message.” Dr. LaQuandra S. Nesbitt has served since January 2015 as Director of the District of Columbia's Department of Health in Washington, D.C.

Travis L. Adkins, deputy assistant administrator for Africa at USAID and lecturer of African and security studies at the Walsh School of Foreign Service and in the Prisons and Justice Initiative at Georgetown University, and Brenda Gayle Plummer, professor of history at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, led a conversation on race in America and international relations. FASKIANOS: Welcome to the first session of the CFR Fall 2021 Academic Webinar Series. I'm Irina Faskianos, vice president of the National Program and Outreach at CFR. Today's meeting is on the record, and the video and transcript will be available on our website CFR.org/academic if you would like to share it with your colleagues or classmates. As always, CFR takes no institutional positions on matters of policy. We're delighted to have Travis Adkins and Brenda Gayle Plummer with us to discuss race in America and international relations. Travis Adkins is deputy assistant administrator in the Bureau of Africa at USAID, and lecturer of African and security studies at the Walsh School of Foreign Service, and in the Prisons and Justice Initiative at Georgetown University. As an international development leader, he has two decades of experience working in governance, civil society, and refugee and migration affairs in over fifty nations throughout Africa and the Middle East. Mr. Adkins was a CFR international affairs fellow and is a CFR member. Dr. Brenda Gayle Plummer is a professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research includes race and gender, international relations, and civil rights. Dr. Plummer has taught Afro-American history throughout her twenty years of experience in higher education. Previously she taught at Fisk University, the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the University of Minnesota. And from 2001 to 2005, Dr. Plummer served on the Historical Advisory Committee of the U.S. Department of State. So, thank you both for being with us today. We appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts with us. Travis, I thought we could begin with you to talk about the ways in which you've seen race relations in America influence U.S. foreign policy. ADKINS: Sure. Thank you so much, Irina. And welcome to everyone. Thank you for joining. The first thing I would say is that America's long history of violence, exclusion, and barbarism towards Black people and indigenous people and Asian communities and immigrant communities in the United States have worked to give the lie to the notion of who we say we are in terms of freedom, in terms of democracy, in terms of the respect for human rights. And these are the core messages that we seek to project in our foreign policy. And we've not been able to resolve those contradictions because we have refused to face this history, right? And we can't countenance a historical narrative in which we are not the heroes, not the good guys, not on the right side of history. And the challenge that we've had is that we've seen that play out in so many ugly ways domestically. But it also has resonance and relevance in our foreign policy, because what it ends up doing is essentially producing a foreign policy of platitudes and contradictory posturing on the issues of human rights, on the issues of racial justice, on the issues of democratic governance when the world can see not only this history but this present reality of racial discrimination, of police brutality, of efforts to suppress the political participation of specific groups of people inside of America. They can see children in cages at the Southern border. They can see anti-Asian hate taking place in our nation, and they can hear those messages resounding, sometimes from our White House, sometimes from our Senate, sometimes from our Congress and other halls of power throughout the United States. And that works against the message of who we say we are, which is really who we want to be. But the thing that we, I think, lose out on is pretending that where we want to be is actually where we are. And I think back a couple weeks ago Secretary Blinken came out saying to diplomats in the State Department that it was okay for them to admit America's flaws and failings in their diplomatic engagements with other countries. But I would—I do applaud that. But I also think that saying that we would admit it to the rest of the world—the rest of the world already knows. And who we would have to need to focus on admitting it to is ourselves, because we have not faced this national shame of ours as it relates to the historical and the present reality of White supremacy, of racialized violence and hatred and exclusion in our immigration policy, in our education policy, in our law and customs and cultural mores that have helped to produce ongoing violence and hatred of this nature in which our history is steeped. I think the other part of that is that we lose the opportunity to then share that message with the rest of the world. And so, what I like to say is that our real history is better than the story that we tell. So instead of us framing ourselves and our foreign policy as a nation who fell from the heavens to the top of a mountain, it's a more powerful story to say that we climbed up out of a valley and are still climbing up out of a valley of trying to create and produce and cultivate a multiracial, multiethnic democracy with respect for all, and that that is and has been a struggle. And I think that that message is much more powerful. And what it does is it creates healing for us at home, but it also begins to take away this kind of Achilles' heel that many of our adversaries have used historically—the Soviet Union, now Russia, China, Iran—this notion that democracy and freedom and the moral posturing of America is all for naught if you just look at what they do at home. Who are they to preach to you about these things when they themselves have the same challenges? And so I think that we would strengthen ourselves if we could look at this in that way. And I would just close by saying that we often speak of the civil rights movement and the movement for decolonization in the world, and specifically in Africa where I mostly work, speak of them in the past tense. But I would argue that both of them are movements and histories that are continuously unfolding, that are not resolved, and that haven't brought themselves to peaceful kinds of conclusions. And this is why when George Floyd is killed on camera, choked for nine minutes and loses his life, that you see reverberations all over the world, people pushing back because they are suffering from the same in their countries, and they are following after anti-Asian hate protestors and advocates, Black Lives Matter advocates and protestors, people who are saying to the world this is unacceptable. And so even in that way, you see the linked fates that people share. And so I think that the more we begin to face who we are at home, the more we begin to heal these wounds and relate better in the foreign policy arena, because I think that it is a long held fallacy that these things are separate, right? A nation's foreign policy is only an extension of its beliefs, its policies and its aspirations and its desires from home going out into the world. So I will stop there. And thank you for the question. FASKIANOS: Thank you very much. Dr. Plummer, over to you. PLUMMER: Well, your question is a very good one. It is also a very book-length question. I'll try to address that. First of all, I would like to say that I find Mr. Adkins' statement quite eloquent and can't think of anything I disagree with in what he has said. There are a couple of things that we might consider as well. I think there are several issues embedded in this question of the relationship between race relations in the United States and it's policies toward other countries. One of them is, I think there's a difference between what policymakers intend and how American policy is perceived. There is also the question of precisely who is making and carrying out U.S. foreign policy. Now there was a time when that question I think could be very readily answered. But we're now in an age where we have enhanced roles for the military and the intelligence community. We have private contractors executing American objectives overseas. And this really places a different spin on things, somewhat different from what we observe when we look at this only through a strictly historical lens. I think we also need to spend some time thinking about the precise relationship between race and racism and what we might call colonial, more of imperialist practices. You might look, for example, at what is the relationship between the essentially colonial status of places like Puerto Rico and the Marianas and the—how those particular people from those places are perceived and treated within both the insular context and the domestic context. Clearly, everybody on the planet is shaped to a large degree by the culture and the society that they live in, that they grew up in, right? And so it is probably no mystery from the standpoint of attitudes that certain kinds of people domestically may translate into similar views of people overseas. But I think one of the things we might want to think about is how our institutions, as well as prejudices, influence what takes place. People like to talk, for example, about the similarities between the evacuation of Saigon and the evacuation of Kabul and wonder what is it called when you do the same thing over and over again and expect different results? We might want to think about what is it, institutionally, which creates these kinds of repetitions, creates situations in which diplomats are forced to apologize and explain continually about race and other conflictual issues in American society. We might also think about what you perhaps could call a racialization process. Do we create categories of pariahs in response to national emergencies? Do we create immigrants from countries south of the United States as enemies because we don't have a comprehensive and logical way of dealing with immigration? Do we create enemies out of Muslims because of our roles in the Middle East and, you know, the activities and actions of other states? There's some historical presence for this—the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, for example. So it seems to me that in addressing I think, you know, some of this very rich question, there are a number of ways and facets that we might want to look at and discuss more fully. FASKIANOS: Great. Thank you very much. And now we're going to go to all of you for questions and comments. So you can either ask your question by raising your hand, click on the raised hand icon and I will call on you, or else you can write your question in the Q&A box. And if you choose to write your question—although we'd prefer to hear your voice—please include your affiliation. And when I call on you, please let us know who you are and your institution. So the first question, the first raised hand I see is from Stanley Gacek. Q: Yes, thank you very much. Thank you very much, Professor Plummer and Mr. Adkins, for a very, very compelling presentation. My name is Stanley Gacek. I'm the senior advisor for global strategies at the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, representing 1.3 million working women and men in the United States and Canada in the retail, wholesale, food production, healthcare, and services industries. Practically all of our members are on the frontlines of the pandemic. I also served as deputy director and interim director of the ILO mission in Brazil in 2011 to 2016. And my question is this. I wonder if the speakers would also acknowledge that an issue for the United States in terms of its credibility with regard to racial justice, human rights, and of course labor rights, is a rather paltry record of the United States in terms of ratifying international instruments and adhering to international fora with regard to all of these issues. One example which comes to mind in my area is ILO Convention 111 against discrimination in employment and profession, which could—actually has gone through a certain due diligence process in former administrations and was agreed to by business and labor in the United States but still the United States has failed to ratify. I just wondered if you might comment more generally about how that affects our credibility in terms of advocating for racial justice, human rights, and labor rights throughout the world. Thank you very much. FASKIANOS: Who can address that, would like to address that? PLUMMER: Well, I have very little immediate knowledge of this, and I have to say that labor issues and labor rights have been kind of a missing element in terms of being heavily publicized and addressed. I think it has something to do with the fact that over the course of the decades the United States has been less responsive to the United Nations, to international organizations in general. But in terms of the specifics, you know, precisely what has fallen by the wayside, I, you know, personally don't have, you know, knowledge about that. ADKINS: And I would just say more generally, not to speak specifically in terms of labor, where I'm also not an expert, but there is, of course, a long history of the U.S. seeking to avoid these kinds of issues in the international arena writ large as Dr. Plummer was just referring to. I just finished a book by Carol Anderson called Eyes Off the Prize, which is a whole study of this and the ways in which the U.S. government worked through the United Nations to prevent the internationalization of the civil rights movement which many—Malcom X and Martin Luther King, Fannie Lou Hamer, and others—sought to frame it in the context of human rights and raise it into an international specter, and that was something that the U.S. government did not want to happen. And of course, we know that part of the genius of the civil rights movement writ large was this tactic of civil disobedience, not just to push against a law that we didn't like to see in effect but actually to create a scene that would create international media attention which would show to the world what these various communities were suffering inside of America, to try to create pressure outside of our borders for the cause of freedom and justice and democracy. And so there is that long history there which you've touched on with your question. Thank you for that. FASKIANOS: Thank you. I'm going to go next to Mojubaolu Olufunke Okome. Q: Good afternoon and thank you for your presentation. I just wonder about U.S. foreign policy, how it lines up with the domestic politics, you know, in terms of race relations, because if one was to believe U.S. propaganda, you know, this country is doing good in the world, it's the country to emulate. But you know, the events of—well, I guess the George Floyd case brought into graphic relief what most astute observers of the U.S. know, that race relations of the U.S. do not line up very well with the constitutional aspirations of the U.S. So what's going to change now, you know? And then there's also this pandemic and the way which race and class is showing us about the real serious inequalities in the U.S. So what's going to change in terms of lessons learned? And then moving forward, is also multilateralism going to come back into U.S. foreign policy in some way? That's it. PLUMMER: I think—I'm getting kind of an echo here. I don't know if other people are. I don't think anyone is—you know, who is thinking about this seriously doubts that the United States is in a crisis at the moment—a crisis of legitimacy not only abroad but also domestically. We have a situation in which an ostensibly developed country has large pockets, geographic pockets where there are, you know, 30, 40, 50 percent poverty rates. We have people who are essentially mired in superstition, you know, with regard to, you know, matters of health and science. And you know, I don't think anyone is, you know—is, you know—who is, you know, thinking about this with any degree of gravity is not concerned about the situation. Once again, I think we're talking here about institutions, about how we can avoid this sort of repetitive and cyclical behavior. But one thing I want to say about George Floyd is that this is a phenomenon that is not only unique to the United States. One of the reasons why George Floyd became an international cause célèbre is because people in other countries also were experiencing racism. There—other countries had issues with regard to immigration. And so really looking at a situation in which I think is—you know, transcends the domestic, but it also transcends, you know, simply looking at the United States as, you know, the sort of target of criticism. FASKIANOS: Do you want to add anything, Travis, or do you want to—should we go to the next question? ADKINS: Go on to the next question. Thank you. FASKIANOS: OK, thank you. Let's go to Shaarik Zafar with Georgetown, and our prior questioner was with Brooklyn—teachers at Brooklyn College. Q: Hey, there. This is Shaarik Zafar. I was formerly the special counsel for post-9/11 national origin discrimination in the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division—sorry, that's a mouthful—and then most recently during the Obama years I was a special representative to Muslim communities. So this—I first applaud the presentation. These issues are very near and dear to me. I think it's clear, you know, we have to own up and acknowledge our shortcomings. And I think, you know, I was really sad to hear that we actually worked against highlighting what I think is really an example of American exceptionalism, which is our civil rights movement and our civil rights community. When I was at State during the Obama years, we had a very modest program where we brought together U.S. civil rights leaders and connected them with European civil rights leaders. And the idea wasn't that we had it all figured out but rather that, you know, in some respects the United States has made some advances when it comes to civil rights organizing and civil society development in that respect—and perhaps more so than other countries. I was just thinking, I would love to get the panelists' thoughts on ways that we can continue to collaborate and—you know, on a civil society level between civil rights organizations in the United States and abroad and the way the U.S. government should actually support that—even if it means highlighting our shortcomings—but as a way to, you know, invest in these types of linkages and partnerships to not only highlight our shortcomings but look for ways that we could, you know, actually come to solutions that need to be, I think, fostered globally. Thanks so much. ADKINS: You know, the first thing I would say, Shaarik—thanks for your question—I thought it was interesting, this idea of framing the civil rights movement as a kind of example of American exceptionalism. And I think there's a way in which I would relate to that in the sense that folks did, at least nominally or notionally, have certain kinds of freedom of speech, certain kinds of rights to assembly. But even those were challenged, of course, when we see the violence and the assassinations and all of the machinations of the government against those who were leaders or participants in that movement. And so in that sense, perhaps I would agree. I might push back, though, in terms of American exceptionalism as it relates to civil rights, because these people were actually advocating against the U.S. government, who actually did not want them to have the rights that they were promised under the Constitution. Of course, many of us would not be free or able to speak up without the 13th and 14th and 15th Amendments. And so there's a sense in which we celebrate them, but there's also a sense in which they are actually indictments of the original Constitution which did not consider any of those things to be necessary elements of our society. In terms of civil society and where the U.S. government is engaged, I think that, you know, sometimes when we deal with these problems that are foreign policy related, you know, sometimes the answer is at home. Sometimes the answer is not, you know, a white paper from some high-level think tank. It's not something that starts ten thousand miles away from where we are, because I don't think that we would have the kind of standing and credibility that we would need to say that we believe in and support and give voice and our backing to civil society movements abroad if we don't do the same thing at home. And so everything that we want to do somewhere else, we ought to ask ourselves the question of whether or not we've thought about doing it at home. And I don't mean to suggest—because certainly no nation is perfect, and every nation has its flaws. But certainly, we would be called to the mat for the ways in which we are either acknowledging or refusing to acknowledge that we have, you know, these same—these same challenges. And so I think there still remains a lot of work to be done there in terms of how we engage on this. And you have seen the State Department come out and be more outspoken. You've seen the Biden administration putting these issues more out front. You have now seen the Black Lives Matter flag flying over U.S. embassies in different parts of the world. And some people might view that as co-optation of a movement that is actually advocating against the government for those rights and those respects and that safety and security that people believe that they are not receiving. And others might see it as a way to say, look, our nation is embracing civil society and civic protests in our nation as an example that the countries in which those embassies are in should be more open to doing the same kinds of things. And so it's a great question. I think it remains to be seen how we move forward on that—on that score. FASKIANOS: Thank you. I'm going to go next to Molly Cole. Q: Hi. My name is Molly Cole. I am a grad student of global affairs at New York University. I was just curious sort of what y'all thought about what the consequences of foreign policy on punishment systems and institutions as it pertains to race relations in the United States would be, also in tandem with sort of this strive for global inclusivity and equity and just sort of, I guess, hitting those two ideas against each other. ADKINS: Can you clarify the ideals for us, Molly? So one sounded like it was about maybe mass incarceration or the death penalty or things of that nature? You're talking about punitive systems of justice? And then the other seemed to be more about diversity, equity, and inclusion in the foreign policy space? But I don't want to put words in your mouth. I just want to make sure I understand the question. Q: You hit the nail on the head. ADKINS: OK. Do you want to go ahead, Dr. Plummer? PLUMMER: Oh. Well, again, a great question but, you know, one of, you know, it's—could write a book to answer. (Laughs.) Well, if you're talking about the sort of international regime of incarceration—is that what you were referring to? Q: Yes, essentially. So when we're—when we're considering, you know, these punitive systems, I'm thinking in terms of, you know, the death penalty, mass incarceration, private prisons, sort of this culmination of us trying to come up with these ideals, but doing it sort of on our own, while also combatting, you know, what the nation is calling for, what the globe is calling for. PLUMMER: Yeah. I think this sort of pertains to what I had mentioned earlier about just, you know, who is making and carrying out U.S. foreign policy, or domestic policy for that matter. There's a whole question of the state and, you know, what parts of the state are involved in this whole question of incarceration and are involved in the whole question of the death penalty. One of the things that we are aware of is that prisons have—some of the prisons are actually not being operated by civil authorities. They're operated by private entities. We saw this again in—you know, particularly in Afghanistan, where a lot of functions which normally, you know, are carried out by civil authorities are carried out by private authorities. And so this really puts a whole different perspective on the question or the relationship of citizens to the state and, you know, to any other particular group of citizens to the state. So I think that, you know, one of the problem areas then is to tease out what in fact are the obligations and privileges of government, and how do they differ from and how are they distinguished from the private sector. Q: Thank you. ADKINS: And I would just add quickly on this notion of hypocrisy and saying one thing and doing another, there was an interesting anecdote around this when President Obama visited Senegal. And he was delivering a fairly tough message about the treatment of members of the LGBT+ community in Senegal. And President Macky Sall got up essentially after President Obama and was essentially saying that, you know, we kind of appreciate this tough love lecture, but I would remind you, you know, that Senegal doesn't have the death penalty, right? And so on one hand we're actually saying something that has a grounding. Of course, people of all human stripes can have dignity, and have respect and be protected. But he is then hitting back and saying, hey, wait a minute, you kill people who break laws in your own country. And we don't have the death penalty. So who should actually be the arbiter of how is the correct way – or, what is the correct way to be? On the second part of your question, quickly, Molly, especially as it relates to the kind of diversity, equity, and inclusion piece, this is why also there has been a big push to look in our State Department, to look at USAID, to look at the face that America presents to the world. And all too often that face has been male, that face has been White. And that gives a certain perception of America, but it also means that we lose the tremendous treasure and talent of people who have language skills, who come from communities in which their own perspective on the world actually is a talent that they have. Specifically, because many of those communities—whether they've immigrated or come to America by different means—are also from groups who've been marginalized, who've been oppressed, who have a certain frame and a lens with which to engage with other nations in the world, either in terms of partnership, either in terms of deterrence. And so we lose out in many ways because we haven't done a great job in that—in that matter. FASKIANOS: I'm going to take a written question from Morton Holbrook, who's at Kentucky Wesleyan College. His question is: How should the United States respond to international criticism to the U.S.'s racial discrimination? And how will that affect the relationship between the U.S. and the international community? PLUMMER: Well, the United States, I think, has—(laughs)—no choice but to acknowledge this. Historically this has been a problem that when pressed on this issue in the past the response was always, well, you know, we know this is a problem and we're working on it. And the most egregious examples of racism are the responsibility of people who are either at the margins of society or who represent some sort of relic past that is rapidly disappearing, right? That was the message about the South, right? OK, the South is, you know, rapidly developing and so soon these vestiges of violent racism will be over. Well, again, the reason why that doesn't work anymore—(laughs)—is because we're always projecting this future, right, that—you know, it's always being projected further and further into the future. And we're never there yet. And it seems to me, again, that this is a problem of institutions. This is a problem of the embeddedness of racism in American life, and a refusal on the part of so many Americans to acknowledge that racism is real, and that it exists. And you know, I think we see many examples of this. I'm thinking of one instance where a George Floyd commemorative mural was painted on a sidewalk and some folks came along with some paint and painted over it, because they said it wasn't a racism corner, you know, while engaged in a racist act. So, you know, there really needs to be, I think, on a very fundamental level, some education—(laughs)—you know, in this country on the issue of race and racism. The question is, you know, who is—who will be leaders, right? Who will undertake this kind of mission? ADKINS: One thing I would say, quickly, on that, Irina, just an anecdote as well that also relates to really in some ways the last question about who our representatives are and what perspective they bring. Several years ago, I was on a trip—a congressional delegation to Egypt. And I was with several members of the CBC. And we met with President Sisi. And they were giving him a fairly rough go of it over his treatment of protesters who were protesting at that time in Tahrir Square, many of whom had been killed, maimed, abused, jailed. And he listened to them kind of haranguing him. And at the end of that speech that they were giving to him he said basically: I understand your points. And I hear your perspective. But he said, can I ask you a question? They said, sure, Mr. President. We welcome you to ask questions. And he said, what about Ferguson? And the day that he said that Ferguson was on fire with surplus military equipment in the streets of America, with, you know, tear gas and armed military-appearing soldiers in the streets of America who were seen, at least optically, to be doing the same thing, right? Not as many people were killed, certainly, but the point is you have this same problem. However, if that had been a different delegation, he might have scored a point in their verbal jousting. But President Sisi had the misfortune of saying this to two-dozen 70-plus-year-old Black people. And no one in America would know better than they what that is like. And so what they ended up replying to him by saying, exactly. No one knows this better than we do. And this is exactly why we're telling you that you shouldn't do it. Not because our country doesn't have that history, but because we do have that history and it has damaged us, and it will damage you. Which takes on a completely different tone in our foreign relations than if it was simply a lecture, and that we were placing ourselves above the nations of the world rather than among them. FASKIANOS: Thank you. I'm going to go to Ashantee Smith. Q: Hello. Can you guys hear me? ADKINS: We can. FASKIANOS: Yes. Q: OK, perfect. Hi. My name is Ashantee Smith. I am a grad student at Winston-Salem State University. In regards to some of the responses that you guys gave earlier, it gave me a question. And I wanted to know how you guys were putting the correlation between racism and immigration. PLUMMER: Well, yeah. The United States has a history of racialized responses to immigrants, including historically to White immigrants. Back in the day the Irish, for example, were considered to be, you know, something less than White. We know, however, that society—American society has since, you know, incorporated Europeans into the category of Whiteness, and not done so for immigrants from Latin America, Asia, and Africa, who remain racialized, who are perceived as being, in some respects by some people, unassimilable. We also have a phenomenon of the racialization of Muslims, the creation of outcast groups that are subjected to, you know, extremes of surveillance or exclusion or discrimination. So immigration is very much embedded in this, is a question of an original vision of the United States, you know, and you can see this in the writings of many of the founding fathers, as essentially a White country in which others, you know, are in varying degrees of second-class citizens or not citizens at all. So this is, I think, an example of something that we have inherited historically that continues to, you know, be an issue for us in the present. Yeah. FASKIANOS: Thank you. I'm going to go next to Pearl Robinson. Q: Hello. I am just so thrilled to see the two panelists here. I want—I actually raised my hand when you were talking about the labor rights issue. And I'm at Tufts University. And I'm currently working on an intellectual biography about Ralph Bunche. And I actually ran over here from the U.N. archives where I was actually reading about these issues. (Laughs.) And I wanted to just say that the discussion we're having now, it's sort of disjointed because we're dealing with lots of erasures, things that are overlooked, and they are not enough Carol Andersons and Brenda Gayle Plummer professors out there putting these things in press. But even more importantly, they are not sufficiently in our curriculum. So people who study international relations and people who do international relations don't know most of these things. So my quick point I just wanted to say was during World War II when Ralph Bunche was working for the OSS military intelligence, his archives are full of it, he went and he was interviewing our allies at their missions and embassies in the U.S.—the French, the British—asking them: What are your labor relations policies in your colonial territories? And this was considered important military information for the United States, as we were going to be—as Africa was an important field of operation. When you get to actually setting up the U.N., I was struck in a way I hadn't, because I hadn't read archives this way. (Laughs.) But I'm looking at conversations between Bunche and Hammarskjöld, and they're restructuring the organization of the United States—of the United Nations. And there are two big issues that are determining their response to the restructuring—the Cold War as well as decolonization. And I actually think that those two issues remain—they're structuring that conversation we're having right now. And they—we say the Cold War is over, but I love this phrase, of the racialization of the current enemies or people we think of as enemies. So I actually do think that this is a really good program we're having where we're trying to have the conversation. But the dis-junctures, and the silences, and the difficulties of responding I think speak volumes. The last thing I will say, very quickly, that incident about the discussion with President Sisi that Mr. Adkins—that needs to be canned. That needs to be somehow made available as an example that can be replicated and expanded and broadened for people to use in teaching. ADKINS: Well, I always listen when my teacher is talking to me, Dr. Robinson. Thank you for sharing that. And I'm working on it, I promise you. (Laughter.) FASKIANOS: Thank you. I'm going to go next to—we have lots of questions and raised hands, and we're not going to get to all of you. So I apologize right now. (Laughs.) We'll do the best we can. Jill Humphries. Q: Hello. My name is Jill Humphries. And I'm an adjunct assistant professor in the Africa Studies Program at the University of Toledo, and have been doing Africa-based work, I'm proud to say, for about thirty-three years, starting at the age twenty-two, and have used Dr. Plummer's work in my dissertation. And hello, fellow ICAPer (sp). So my question is this: There's an assumption that I believe we're operating in. And that is race and racism is somehow aberrant to the founding of this country, right? So we know that Saidiya Hartman and Frank Wilderson, the Afropessimist, make the argument that it is clearly key that it is fundamental to the development of our institutions. And so my question is this: You know, the—in the domestic scene the sort of abolitions clearly state that unless we fundamentally transform our norms and values, which impact, of course, our institutions, then we will continue to have the exact outcomes that are expected. The killing of George Floyd and the continuing, I think, need to kill Black bodies is essential to this country. And so my question is, in the context of foreign relations, international relations, are we also looking at the way in which, number one, it is not aberrant that racism is a constituent element in the development of our foreign policy and our institutions? And that unless we fundamentally first state it, acknowledge it, and then perhaps explore the way in which we dismantle, right—dismantle those norms and values that then impact these institutions, that we're going to continue to have the same outcomes, right? So for example, when Samantha Powers visited Ethiopia, if you've been following that whole narrative, there was a major backlash by the Ethiopian diaspora—major. My colleagues and friends, like, I've had intense conversations, right, around that. Same thing about the belief about Susan, former—Susan Rice's role, right, in continuing to influence our foreign policy, particularly towards the Horn of Africa. So my question is: What does that look like, both theoretically, conceptually? But more importantly for me, because I'm a practitioner on the ground, what does that look like in practice? And that's where I think Professor Adkins, working for USAID, could really kind of talk about. Thank you. ADKINS: Thank you. Yeah, you know, I think it goes back to Dr. Robinson's question a moment ago. And that is the first the acknowledgement and the calling out and the putting into relief and contrast the context in which we're operating, especially when we think about not even USAID specifically, but the industry of development—aid and development assistance kind of writ large. Because essentially what we have is a historical continuum that starts with the colonial masters and the colonial subjects. And then that because what is called, or framed, as the first world and the third world, right? And then that becomes the developing world and the developed world. Then that becomes the global north and the global south. All of which suggests that one is above, and one is below. That one is a kind of earthly heaven, the other kind of earthly hell. That one possessed the knowledge and enlightenment to lead people into civilization, and the other needs redemption, needs to be saved, needs to be taught the way to govern themselves, right? That this kind of Western notion of remaking yourself in the world, that your language, that your system of government, that your way of thinking and religious and belief and economics should be the predominant one in the world. And so I think, to me, what you're saying suggests the ways in which we should question that. And this is where you start to hear conversations about decolonizing aid, about questioning how we presume to be leaders in the world in various aspects, of which we may not actually be producing sound results ourselves. And thinking again about this notion of placing ourselves among nations rather than above nations in the ways in which we relate and engage. And I think that it's one of the reasons that we continue to have challenges in the realm of development assistance, in the realm of our diplomacy and foreign policy. Because, again, there is a pushback against that kind of thinking, which is rooted in a deep history that contains much violence and many types of economic and diplomatic pressures to create and sustain the set of power relations which keeps one group of people in one condition and one in another. And so it's a huge question. And how to bring that kind of lofty thinking down to the granular level I think is something that we will have to continue to work on every day. I certainly don't have the answer, but I'm certainly answering—asking, I should say—the questions. PLUMMER: I think I might also think about how is in charge. And this is—you know, it goes back to something we talked about before, when U.S. foreign policy is no longer exclusively rooted in the State Department? So in terms of, you know, who represents the United States abroad and in what ways, and how is that representation perceived, we're really looking at, you know, a lot of different actors. And we're also looking at, you know, changes in the way that the U.S. government itself is perceiving its role, both at home and abroad. And one of the questions was previously asked about the system of incarceration speaks to that, because we have to ask ourselves what are—what are—what are the proper roles and responsibilities and burdens of the state, the government and, you know, what is leased out—(laughs)—in some ways, for profit to private concerns? So I think that, you know, some of this is about, you know, a sense of mission that I don't see out there, that I think will in some respects have to be restored and reinvented. FASKIANOS: Thank you. I'm going to go next to Erez Manela. Q: Thank you very much for this really terrific and important panel. My name is Erez Manela. I teach the history of U.S. foreign relations at Harvard. And my question actually—I don't know if Irina planned this—but it follows on directly from the previous question. Because I kept on wondering during this panel what—I mean, the focus that we've had here, the topic that's been defined, is the way in which domestic race relations, domestic racism, have shaped U.S. foreign policy. But of course, U.S. foreign policy has been shaped—as the previous questioner noted—has been shaped directly by racism and perceptions of racial hierarchy for—well, since the very beginning. And Professor Adkins spoke very eloquently about it. And of course, Professor Plummer has written eloquently about that, including in her books on Haiti and international relations. But I guess I'm wondering if you could speak more about the specifics about the history that needs to be recognized in that realm, and then—and this is maybe self-interested—whether you have any recommendations, in the way that you recommended Carol Anderson's really terrific book—for reading that we can read ourselves or give our students to read, that would really drive that point home, the influence of racism, race perceptions, race hierarchies themselves on—directly on the conduct of U.S. foreign relations historically. PLUMMER: Well, Professor Manela, I appreciate your own work on Wilson. And you know, that in some respects—that would be a book that I'd recommend. (Laughs.) Might also think about Mary Dudziak's work on Cold War civil rights, and her law review article, Desegregation as a Cold War Imperative, which, you know, directly addresses these questions. Again, what I would like to see is some work that will—perhaps not necessarily a historical perspective—but will address this whole question of the sort of growing, I don't know what you'd call it, multiplicity or multivariant character of American policymaking, you know, as we—as we go forward, you know, past the Cold War era. There's an interesting item by a man named Andrew Friedman, who wrote a book called Covert Capital. I think the subtitle is something like Landscapes of Power, in which we discussed the rise of Northern Virginia as what he sees as the true capital of, you know, parts of the U.S. government, in being a center for the military and for intelligence community. And their shaping of that environment at home, as well as their influence in shaping U.S. policy abroad. So, you know, there's a lot of room for work on these—on these issues. ADKINS: And I would also just follow up—and thank you for the question—and add another book that I just finished. Daniel Immerwahr, from Northwestern University, How to Hide an Empire, which deals in many ways with U.S. foreign policy and the way in which it is explicitly racialized and ways in which that goes understudied in our—in our policy circles, and certainly in the world of education. FASKIANOS: I'm going to try to squeeze in one last question. And I apologize again for not getting to everybody's question. We'll go to Garvey Goulbourne as our final question. Q: Yes. Hi. Can you hear me? FASKIANOS: We can. Q: Yeah. My name's Garvey Goulbourne. I'm a student at the University of Virginia, actually studying abroad this semester in Rabat, Morocco. And my question to you both is: What mechanisms do we have to orient the narratives that our foreign policy leaders are brought up with? Thinking particularly of American exceptionalism and how we kind of place ourselves on a pedestal, whether they be foreign affairs schools or various institutions at different levels of American education, what tools do we have to address the foundations of American perspectives of themselves and our nation in relation to the rest of the world, particularly the global south? FASKIANOS: Who wants to go first? An easy question, of course, to close with. PLUMMER: Go ahead, Mr. Adkins. ADKINS: Sure, sure. Thank you for your question, Garvey. And congratulations on the move out to Morocco. Great to see you there. I think the first thing I would say, of course, is our tools, as far as I am concerned, relate certainly to education. And it's one of the reasons that I am in the classroom. But I know what that fight is like, because even education is taken over by these notions of White supremacy, by these notions of singular historical narratives. And this is why there's been such a push against the 1619 Project of the New York Times, why there is this kind of silly season around the misunderstood origins and contexts of critical race theory. There is this battle over who gets to tell the story of what America is, because it is more than—but it is more than one thing, obviously, to a multiplicity of people. And so I am kind of remiss—or, not remiss. There's no way for me to elucidate for you now a series of tools that will resolve these problems, because these are challenges that people have been wrestling with before our mothers' mothers were born. And so we only are continuing that fight from where we sit. And certainly, in the classrooms that I am in, whether they are in prisons or on campuses, we are always digging into the origin of these themes. And the main frame through which I teach is not just for students to understand this history for their health, but for them to understand this history as a lens through which to view the current world and all of the events and challenges that we find ourselves facing, to see if we can come up with new ways to address them. PLUMMER: Well, one of the things that Mr. Goulbourne could do, since he is in Morocco, is to make use of his own insights in his conversations with Moroccans. So, you know, there is still a role, you know, for individual actors to play some part in attempting to make some changes. FASKIANOS: Well, with that we unfortunately have to close this conversation. It was very rich. Thank you, Travis Adkins and Brenda Gayle Plummer or sharing your insights and analysis with us. We really appreciate it. To all of you, for your questions and comments. Again, I'm sorry we couldn't get to all of you. You can follow Travis Adkins @travisladkins, and that's on Twitter. And our next Academic Webinar will be on Wednesday September 29, at 1:00 p.m. (ET) with Thomas Graham, who is a fellow at CFR. And we'll talk about Putin's Russia. So in the meantime, I encourage you to follow us at @CFR_Academic, visit CFR.org, Thinkglobalhealth.org, and ForeignAffairs.com for new research and analysis on global issues. So thank you all again and we look forward to continuing the conversation. ADKINS: Take care, everyone. Thank you. (END)

Tom Bollyky joined us on the occasion of our 100th episode to reflect on President Biden's six-point re-set of US pandemic policy, unveiled September 9, and to discuss what can be done to break the deadlock over determining the origin of SARS-CoV-2. President Biden's patience has clearly run out, and the new approach, heavily reliant on mandates, will stir political blowback, litigation, and defiant disobedience which may slow progress versus accelerate momentum. It's “not a happy day” when people will be “pushed into a corner.” It's disappointing that the private sector did not earlier do far more. Our national narrative may however improve, as higher rates of hospitalization of children deflate the individual freedom argument. On the origins controversy, it is “utterly unsurprising” that the US intelligence review was inconclusive. The origin issue is indeed terribly important, at this historic “policy moment,” since without resolution, we are blocked in our prevention approaches. We are in a “dark environment” and there is no prospect for progress in global health unless we find a basis for cooperation between the US and China. In the meantime, we should prioritize moving ahead with more rigorous lab safety standards and end wildlife trade and wet markets. Thomas J. Bollyky is the Director of the Global Health Program and Senior Fellow for Global Health, Economics, and Development at the Council on Foreign Relations.

In this episode, I continue my conversation with David Hajjar as he helps us understand what will happen in a Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. David has been involved in relief work for 35 years with the UN, USAID, and similar organizations. In this episode, he gives us a more practical view of what is likely to happen next in Afghanistan. If you missed the last episode, David gave us a solid overview of how the region works and why.   If you enjoyed this episode, please consider subscribing and tell others who might benefit from this podcast. I would like to hear from you. You can leave a comment below.  I would like to hear if this was useful. Contact me on Twitter or Gettr @daringerdes or leave a video message: https://flipgrid.com/leadersmith  Join our FACEBOOK COMMUNITY and continue the discussion there: https://www.facebook.com/groups/learnleadership/   or Join our LinkedIn community: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13966891/

Reviewing the Air Force's new Office of the Future Col. Kevin Mantovani (USAF), vice commander of the Air Force Installation & Mission Support Center at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland in Texas, discusses the Air Force's Office of the Future initiative that will incorporate telework and a redesigned office environment Responding to Haitian earthquake at USAID Tim Callaghan, disaster assistance response team leader for USAID for the 2021 Haiti earthquake, details the current situation in Haiti and shelter, food and health assistance efforts The role of governance in OIT at the VA Martha Orr, deputy CIO for quality, performance and risk in the Office of Information and Technology (OIT) at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and Merissa Larson, executive director for quality and risk in the VA OIT, discuss challenges and successes in IT governance in their organization

In this episode, I have a fascinating conversation with David Hajjar. David has worked in relief work with the UN, USAID, and similar organizations for 35 years. He is a native of Lebanon and lived there during the civil war. In this episode he gives us a philosophical overview of the middle east to help us process what will happen in Afghanistan as we move forward. In the next episode, we continue the conversation and we try to get a sense of how the Taliban will act as they move forward. We compare notes as we try to understand what will happen next. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider subscribing and tell others who might benefit from this podcast. I would like to hear from you. You can leave a comment below.  I would like to hear if this was useful. Contact me on Twitter or Gettr @daringerdes or leave a video message: https://flipgrid.com/leadersmith  Join our FACEBOOK COMMUNITY and continue the discussion there: https://www.facebook.com/groups/learnleadership/   or Join our LinkedIn community: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13966891/

Professor Larry Gostin joined us for a spirited conversation of where America as a country stands today, almost two years into Covid-19. Human ingenuity and scientific gains have been “astounding,” while our preparedness, in the face of such a “wily enemy,” has too often been “abysmal.” We experienced shock when the first wave that began in Wuhan landed at our shores, CDC bungled tests, the Trump administration stoked anti-Asian hatred and politicized essential tools – masks, vaccines, and temporary lockdowns. Public health messaging too often has been “appalling," as CDC's scientific leadership has stumbled. Now, in late 2021, we face the danger of dividing our society into two opposing camps, the vaccinated versus the unvaccinated. The Biden administration has refused to take up vaccine credentialing, a significant mistake. It has also shown remarkable leadership in trying to overcome vaccine hesitancy and refusal, and now must turn increasingly to mandates.   Larry Gostin is University Professor and Director of the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown Law.

On COI #153, Kyle Anzalone updates events in Afghanistan. The Pentagon and State Department are working to remove some privileged Afghans and Americans from Afghanistan. The US claims it has evacuated tens of thousands so far,  but it is still unclear how many will be left behind. Despite the speed with which the Afghan government collapsed and ongoing chaos at the airport, the American people have been unpersuaded by a relentless effort by war hawks in the corporate press to turn the public against the withdrawal. New polls show almost two-thirds of Americans support ending the occupation.  Kyle breaks down recent tragedies in Haiti. After a presidential assassination last month, an earthquake and tropical storm left over 2,200 dead. USAID seized on the opportunity to increase the empire's reach in Haiti, with hundreds of troops set to deploy for a relief operation led by the agency. However, USAID has a history of supporting regime change efforts through its “charity.” Aid operations after the last major earthquake in 2010 left the country worse off by squandering billions and creating a cholera epidemic.  Kyle discusses the FDA's decision to grant full approval for Pfizer's Covid vaccine. As predicted on Monday's show, the approval came with a massive wave of government pressure for employers to mandate vaccines for all workers.  In Yemen, Saudi currency manipulation is wreaking economic chaos as there are now two exchange rates in Yemen. The Saudi-backed government has dumped new dollars into Yemen, causing a spike in inflation in those areas. The Houthis have banned the newly minted bills, preventing the erosion in the currency's value. Odysee Rumble  Donate LBRY Credits bTTEiLoteVdMbLS7YqDVSZyjEY1eMgW7CP Donate Bitcoin 36PP4kT28jjUZcL44dXDonFwrVVDHntsrk Donate Bitcoin Cash Qp6gznu4xm97cj7j9vqepqxcfuctq2exvvqu7aamz6 Patreon Subscribe Star YouTube Facebook  Twitter  MeWe Apple Podcast  Amazon Music Google Podcasts Spotify iHeart Radio Support Our Sponsor Visit Paloma Verde and use code PEACE for 25% off our CBD

On COI #153, Kyle Anzalone updates events in Afghanistan. The Pentagon and State Department are working to remove some privileged Afghans and Americans from Afghanistan. The US claims it has evacuated tens of thousands so far,  but it is still unclear how many will be left behind. Despite the speed with which the Afghan government collapsed and ongoing chaos at the airport, the American people have been unpersuaded by a relentless effort by war hawks in the corporate press to turn the public against the withdrawal. New polls show almost two-thirds of Americans support ending the occupation.  Kyle breaks down recent tragedies in Haiti. After a presidential assassination last month, an earthquake and tropical storm left over 2,200 dead. USAID seized on the opportunity to increase the empire's reach in Haiti, with hundreds of troops set to deploy for a relief operation led by the agency. However, USAID has a history of supporting regime change efforts through its “charity.” Aid operations after the last major earthquake in 2010 left the country worse off by squandering billions and creating a cholera epidemic.  Kyle discusses the FDA's decision to grant full approval for Pfizer's Covid vaccine. As predicted on Monday's show, the approval came with a massive wave of government pressure for employers to mandate vaccines for all workers.  In Yemen, Saudi currency manipulation is wreaking economic chaos as there are now two exchange rates in Yemen. The Saudi-backed government has dumped new dollars into Yemen, causing a spike in inflation in those areas. The Houthis have banned the newly minted bills, preventing the erosion in the currency's value. Odysee Rumble  Donate LBRY Credits bTTEiLoteVdMbLS7YqDVSZyjEY1eMgW7CP Donate Bitcoin 36PP4kT28jjUZcL44dXDonFwrVVDHntsrk Donate Bitcoin Cash Qp6gznu4xm97cj7j9vqepqxcfuctq2exvvqu7aamz6 Patreon Subscribe Star YouTube Facebook  Twitter  MeWe Apple Podcast  Amazon Music Google Podcasts Spotify iHeart Radio Support Our Sponsor Visit Paloma Verde and use code PEACE for 25% off our CBD

In conversation with Steve Morrison on August 2, Dr. Fauci began by laying out the $3.2b Antiviral Program for Pandemics. Its dual aims are quick and long-term wins. The optimal antiviral: a single pill, oral, that early in infection stops replication. Any solution has to be grounded in equity of access, at home and abroad; requires a massive increase in testing; and will rest on combination therapy to combat variants. The initial $3.2b, it is hoped, achieves success that fuels higher future investments. Private industry and academic partners are key to rapid gains and building sustainable R&D capacity. Beyond the APP, how to arrest the “pandemic of the unvaccinated? We need a national “uniformity of approach” on masks, vaccination levels of at least 1-2 million per day, quick full approval of mRNA vaccines, boosters, and vaccines available for kids “not beyond the fall.” Dr. Anthony Fauci is the Chief Medical Adviser to President Joe Biden and Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

https://youtu.be/RSA4-DOaXIk Despite Washington's decision not to deploy Marines to Haiti after the July assassination of Haitian president Jovenelle Moise, the devastation of last Saturday's 7.2 earthquake has provided US leaders the cloak of humanitarian aid for doing just that. These Marines will be operating at the behest of USAID, a CIA cutout that disastrously coordinated humanitarian relief efforts after the 2010 earthquake. Haitian recovery emphatically needs a Haitian solution. List of Local Haitian Relief Efforts Episode 180 of the Liberty Weekly Podcast is Brought to you by: Join Liberty Weekly and tons of your favorite creators on Rokfin for one low subscription fee! Liberty Weekly Subscribestar Rakuten Cash Back Referral Link Liberty Weekly Substack The Liberty Weekly Patreon Page: help support the show and gain access to tons of bonus content! Become a patron today! Become a Patron! Liberty Weekly on Flote. Patreon Bonuses for Crypto! Show Notes: Kim Ives: Washington Chooses Ariel Henry for PM as More Details about Moise Murder Emerge TIME: The Death Toll From Haiti's Earthquake Rises Above 2,200 People CBC: Frustrations, violence flare in Haiti as earthquake survivors plead for aid Patrick MacFarlane: Uncle Sam Must Cease Intervention in Haiti RT: Biden to send Marines to guard US Embassy in Haiti, but says broader deployment ‘not on the agenda at this moment' WTKR: USS Arlington departs Naval Station Norfolk for Haiti disaster relief after powerful earthquake Haiti Liberte: Les marines débarqueront-ils à nouveau? Will the Marines Disembark again? US State Department: U.S. Invasion and Occupation of Haiti, 1915–34 NACLA: Haiti's Earthquakes Require a Haitian Solution New York Times: Secret Programs Hurt Foreign Aid Efforts The Grayzone: Cuba's cultural counter-revolution: US gov't-backed rappers, artists gain fame as 'catalyst for current unrest' Pando: The murderous history of USAID, the US Government agency behind Cuba's fake Twitter clone Noam Chomsky: Failed State: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy CNN: Aristide says U.S. deposed him in 'coup d'etat' Rolling Stone: Beyond Relief: How the World Failed Haiti ProPublica: How the Red Cross Raised Half a Billion Dollars for Haiti and Built Six Homes Donor See List of Local Haitian Relief Efforts

Despite Washington's decision not to deploy Marines to Haiti after the July assassination of Haitian president Jovenelle Moise, the devastation of last Saturday's 7.2 earthquake has provided US leaders the cloak of humanitarian aid for doing just that. These Marines will be operating at the behest of USAID, a CIA cutout that disastrously coordinated humanitarian relief efforts after the 2010 earthquake. Haitian recovery emphatically needs a Haitian solution. List of Local Haitian Relief Efforts Episode 180 of the Liberty Weekly Podcast is Brought to you by: Liberty Weekly Subscribestar Rakuten Cash Back Referral Link Liberty Weekly Substack The Liberty Weekly Patreon Page: help support the show and gain access to tons of bonus content! Become a patron today! Become a Patron! Liberty Weekly on Flote. Patreon Bonuses for Crypto! Show Notes: Kim Ives: Washington Chooses Ariel Henry for PM as More Details about Moise Murder Emerge TIME: The Death Toll From Haiti's Earthquake Rises Above 2,200 People CBC: Frustrations, violence flare in Haiti as earthquake survivors plead for aid Patrick MacFarlane: Uncle Sam Must Cease Intervention in Haiti RT: Biden to send Marines to guard US Embassy in Haiti, but says broader deployment ‘not on the agenda at this moment' WTKR: USS Arlington departs Naval Station Norfolk for Haiti disaster relief after powerful earthquake Haiti Liberte: Les marines débarqueront-ils à nouveau? Will the Marines Disembark again? US State Department: U.S. Invasion and Occupation of Haiti, 1915–34 NACLA: Haiti's Earthquakes Require a Haitian Solution New York Times: Secret Programs Hurt Foreign Aid Efforts The Grayzone: Cuba's cultural counter-revolution: US gov't-backed rappers, artists gain fame as 'catalyst for current unrest' Pando: The murderous history of USAID, the US Government agency behind Cuba's fake Twitter clone Noam Chomsky: Failed State: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy CNN: Aristide says U.S. deposed him in 'coup d'etat' Rolling Stone: Beyond Relief: How the World Failed Haiti ProPublica: How the Red Cross Raised Half a Billion Dollars for Haiti and Built Six Homes Donor See List of Local Haitian Relief Efforts

Streamlining CIO responsibilities for federal agencies Karen Evans, partner at KE&T Partners, and Alan Balutis, former senior director and distinguished fellow at Cisco Systems, provide their perspectives on the idea of consolidating chief information officer roles at agencies Reviewing military training and preparedness in Afghanistan Jason Dempsey, adjunct senior fellow for the Military, Veterans and Society Program at the Center for a New American Security, analyzes issues with resource management that contributed to the current situation in Afghanistan Coordinating federal response efforts for natural disasters Dave Grant and Rear Adm. Joe Nimmich (USCG, ret.), partners at Potomac Ridge Consulting, discuss how FEMA, USAID, and state and local governments are responding to natural disasters

In 2020, The Peace Corps recalled every volunteer due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since that moment, the National Peace Corps Association, a 501(c)(3) enterprise, has held many town hall meetings, advocacy meetings, consultations with congressional representatives and senators, and more to help bring back into the field a Peace Corps that is stronger, more responsive to social needs, more diverse and more robust. While NPCA is not a government agency, it has worked tirelessly with the Peace Corps, a government agency, to help launch a new vision. NPCA President Glenn Blumhorst will discuss the future of this important agency and how it will be better and more important than before. Blumhorst is the president and CEO of the National Peace Corps Association, an enterprise at the center of a community of more than 180 grassroots affiliate groups and 235,000 individuals who share the Peace Corps experience. Founded in 1979 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., NPCA's mission is “to champion lifelong commitment to Peace Corps ideals.” During his tenure, Blumhorst has led NPCA's historic transformation from a dues-based alumni association to a community-driven social impact organization. He also served as country representative and chief of party on several major USAID-funded projects throughout Central and South America. Blumhorst launched his career by serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala from 1988 to 1991. He holds a Master of Public Administration and a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture, both from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He is the 2018 recipient of the prestigious University of Missouri Faculty-Alumni Award. SPEAKERS Glenn Blumhorst President and CEO, National Peace Corps Association Frank Price Moderator, International Relations MLF Co-Chair In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded via video conference on August 4th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jocelyn Kelly is the founding director for Harvard Humanitarian Initiative's (HHI) Women in War program, and currently is a fellow at HHI where she designs and implements projects to examine issues relating to gender, peace, and security in fragile states. Kelly has been conducting health-related research using qualitative and quantitative research methods for over eight years both in national and international settings. She has given briefings related to gender and security to the United Nations Security Council, the U.S. State Department, USAID, the World Bank, OFDA, the Woodrow Wilson Center, and the U.S. Institute of Peace. Prior to joining HHI, Jocelyn worked as an Emergency Management Specialist in Hurricane Katrina-affected areas and acted as a liaison to the FEMA Public Assistance Chief in Louisiana. Kelly's international work has focused on understanding the health needs of vulnerable populations in Eastern and Central Africa and has included working with the Uganda Human Rights commission to launch the first office in Africa promoting the Right to Health. Stephen and Jocelyn explored the challenges of COVID in conflict zones including increased violence, lack of access to care and disruption of community. Jocelyn discussed her research on the effect of COVID on interpersonal violence as well as escalating overall violence in conflict zones. Stephen and Jocelyn reflected on the encouraging resilience that people have demonstrated including the creation of microeconomies that included mask making. They finish their discussion on the global responsibilities to provide care and resources to these underserved and marginalised areas. Jocelyn discussed specific links to her work that include more details on her research as well as more information about the Harvard Humanitarian initiative and related projects.   https://hhi.harvard.edu https://www.resource-fulempowerment.com https://www.jocelynkellyresearch.com

After politely disagreeing with an article I read on Study Breaks, I give my definition of self-care and taking care of yourself; express the importance of individuality; and give unsolicited advice/words of encouragement/examples for taking care of yourself. Plus, there's a small announcement at the beginning of the episode (like why the heck this is going up on a Monday). Study Breaks article: https://studybreaks.com/uncategorized/self-care-taking-care/#:~:text=So%20let's%20look%20at%20%E2%80%9Cself,%E2%80%9Ctaking%20care%20of%20yourself.%E2%80%9D&text=That's%20where%20the%20major%20difference,care%20of%20yourself%E2%80%9D%20comes%20in. HOT THOUGHTS ON HOT TOPICS LINKS Haiti- CNN: https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/14/world/how-to-help-haiti-earthquake-victims/index.html DirectRelief: https://www.directrelief.org/emergency/haiti-earthquake-2010/ USAID: https://www.usaid.gov/news-information/press-releases/aug-14-2021-usaid-deploys-disaster-assistance-response-team-respond-haiti #FreeBritney- BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53494405#:~:text=A%20grassroots%20movement%20of%20fans,conflict%20over%20the%20singer's%20guardianship. Harper's Bazaar: https://www.harpersbazaar.com/celebrity/latest/a34113034/why-longtime-britney-spears-fans-are-demanding-to-freebritney/ Lebanon- The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/04/world/lebanon-crisis.html The Nation: https://www.thenation.com/article/world/lebanon-financial-collapse/ RECS & REGRETS Movie: The Kissing Booth 3 (NO) TV Show: Sex/Life (YES) Song: "Rumors" by Lizzo ft. Cardi B (NEED TIME) Book: This is Major by Shayla Lawson (YES) POLL OF THE WEEK- Which is one is more superior: iCarly the OG or iCarly the reboot? Vote now on @its.essjayy on Instagram! BLOG: http://simplyjamilah.com/ Listen to your body! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/simplyjamilah/message

Phillip LeBelEmeritus Professor of Economics at Montclair State Universityhttps://www.amazon.com/Phillip-G.-LeBel/e/B001KHL5ME%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_shareAboutAgainst a career as an academic economist for several decades, he has combined multilingual skills and interpersonal relationships in a professional activity that includes extensive work in Africa, Asia, and Latin America with specializations in the economics of project management, energy and natural resource economics, and the economics of higher education for a variety of organizations and institutions.ExperienceEmeritus Professor of EconomicsMontclair State UniversitySep 1981 - Present40 yearsEducationBoston UniversityBoston UniversityDoctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)Specializations in higher education, energy & natural resources, and risk economicsActivities and Societies: Consultancies with USAID, the World Bank, UNESCO, FAO with travel-work in some 30 countries in Africa, Japan, South Korea, China, Thailand, India, Mexico, and BrazilSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/TheDarrellmcclainshow)

Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton discuss how the US government laid the groundwork for unrest in Cuba, the Biden administration's escalation of the economic war, and how CIA cutouts like USAID and the NED have cultivated a counter-revolutionary cultural network of rappers, artists, and social media influencers to push propaganda. We had planned on speaking with Havana-based journalist Cristina Escobar, but at the last minute when we started recording she unfortunately was unable to join us. Read Max's report "Cuba's cultural counter-revolution: US gov't-backed rappers, artists gain fame as ‘catalyst for current unrest'" here: https://thegrayzone.com/2021/07/25/cubas-cultural-counter-revolution-us-govt-rappers-artists-catalyst VIDEO: youtube.com/watch?v=KLMuuGtaxes

Chris Murray, director of IHME, joined our podcast once again, at this major moment of reset of expectations – of our ability to control the pandemic, of policy decisions, data gaps, political attitudes and behavior, hitting the wall of hesitancy and refusal to vaccinate, and public confusion. We cover the full gamut: the forecast for the fall surge, missteps on masking, the need for greater transparency in data, and how much room exists to overcome resistance to vaccines.  Chris Murray is the Director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, and Chair and Professor, Department of Health Metrics Sciences, at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Dr. Birx, former Response Coordinator during the Trump administration of the White House Covid-19 Task Force, served also as the Global Health Ambassador and Coordinator of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) between April 2014 and January 2021. She joined us for an extended conversation on the accelerating changes surrounding us – the Delta variant surge, new discoveries regarding breakthrough infections among the vaccinated, continued vaccine hesitancy, and refusal that has prompted the declaration of “a pandemic of the unvaccinated.” As we speak, newly revised policies on masks and vaccinations are getting unveiled. What to make of this new phase, and where is it heading? We'll need far higher testing and genomic sequencing, intensified local engagement, a big push on accelerating therapies, and thinking ahead on what the future mix of vaccines will look like.  Dr. Deborah Birx is a Senior Fellow at the George W. Bush Presidential Center

Amb. Ryan Crocker, Middle East expert, explains the value of Foreign Service Nationals and brings it all home with a story of the day that local staff saved his life. Toobah, a former employee of USAID, then tells us of her life, stuck at home in Kabul at all times because if she goes outside she will be killed in a most gruesome manner. And why? She worked. Not only that: She helped other women get jobs. Point being? They saved our lives. We must act fast to save theirs.  

On this episode, Yvette interviews Central American journalist Daniel Alvarenga about the President of El Salvador's recent decision to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. They discuss the context of US intervention into the Salvadoran economy through USAID, how the women of the FMLN kicked Bukele out of their party, and how Bukele's cult of personality has become so successful. Read Daniel's article here: https://elfaro.net/en/202106/columns/25579/USAID-Bitcoin-and-the-Long-Fight-over-El-Salvador%E2%80%99s-Sovereignty.htm Support Radio Cachimbona here: https://www.patreon.com/radiocachimbona?fan_landing=true Follow @radiocachimbona on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook

On this edition of Parallax Views, the recent protests in Cuba were, in some regards, boosted by hip hop artists like rapper Yotuel Romero of the Cuban hip hop group Orishnas. Journalist Alan MacLeod, in a recent article for Mint Press News entitled "The Bay of Tweets: Documents Point to US Hand in Cuba Protests", details how taxpayer dollars have been allocated to musicians, specifically hip hop artists, that are seen as potentially useful in stoking unrest and protest against the Cuban government. He joins us on this edition of the program to discuss this strange story and how it involves organizations like USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED; which has its origins in the CIA and the Reagan Presidency). We also discuss the impact of the embargo and sanctions on the Cuban economy along with a host of other issues related to Cuba and the protests including U.S. responses to it from political figures like Marco Rubio.

Gary Edson, President and founder of The Covid Collaborative, has for decades been a highly visible and impactful leader across government, business, and the non-profit worlds. While serving in senior White House positions in President George W. Bush's administration, he played a key role in the design and launch of the President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and in the management of G-7 and other summits. He joins us to explore why the international response to Covid-19 has been so radically different from the response two decades ago to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. He also walks us through the genesis of the Covid Collaborative, how it operates, its impressive achievements in devising plans of action embraced by governors whose constituents account for one-third of Americans, and its rapid, innovative work on testing, masks, vaccine hesitancy, and school reopening. More recently, the Collaborative has focused (with CSIS) on the stark global split between vaccine ‘haves' versus ‘have nots,' at the very moment when two Americas have appeared, the vaccinated and unvaccinated. What gives him hope? “America rises to the occasion.”   Gary Edson is the President of The Covid Collaborative.

In a companion interview to his June 7 talk with Stanford's Michael Snyder, Harry speaks this week with Noosheen Hashemi, who—with Snyder—co-founded the personalized health startup January.ai in 2017. The company focuses on helping users understand how their bodies respond to different foods and activities, so they can make diet and exercise choices that help them avoid unhealthy spikes in blood glucose levels.January's smartphone app collects blood glucose levels from disposable devices called continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), as well as heart rate data from patients' Fitbits or Apple Watches. The app also makes it easier for users to log the food they eat, and see what impact each food has on their glucose levels. Once the app has enough data, January's machine learning algorithms can start predicting the effects of different foods and activities on blood glucose. It can then recommend meals and exercise that'll help users keep their blood glucose in a healthy target range. The goal isn't to prevent glucose spikes completely, but rather to prevent diabetes from emerging over the long term in people at risk for a cluster of serious conditions known metabolic syndrome. That could help individuals live longer, healthier lives. And at a population level it could save billions in healthcare costs.Please rate and review MoneyBall Medicine on Apple Podcasts! Here's how to do that from an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch:• Launch the “Podcasts” app on your device. If you can't find this app, swipe all the way to the left on your home screen until you're on the Search page. Tap the search field at the top and type in “Podcasts.” Apple's Podcasts app should show up in the search results.• Tap the Podcasts app icon, and after it opens, tap the Search field at the top, or the little magnifying glass icon in the lower right corner.• Type MoneyBall Medicine into the search field and press the Search button.• In the search results, click on the MoneyBall Medicine logo.• On the next page, scroll down until you see the Ratings & Reviews section. Below that, you'll see five purple stars.• Tap the stars to rate the show.• Scroll down a little farther. You'll see a purple link saying “Write a Review.”• On the next screen, you'll see the stars again. You can tap them to leave a rating if you haven't already.• In the Title field, type a summary for your review.• In the Review field, type your review.• When you're finished, click Send.• That's it, you're done. Thanks!Full TranscriptHarry Glorikian: I'm Harry Glorikian, and this is MoneyBall Medicine, the interview podcast where we meet researchers, entrepreneurs, and physicians who are using the power of data to improve patient health and make healthcare delivery more efficient. You can think of each episode as a new chapter in the never-ending audio version of my 2017 book, “MoneyBall Medicine: Thriving in the New Data-Driven Healthcare Market.” If you like the show, please do us a favor and leave a rating and review at Apple Podcasts.Harry Glorikian: I've been making the show long enough that you can see a kind of family tree emerging, with branches that connect many of our episodes.That's definitely the case with today's interview with Noosheen Hashemi, the co-founder and CEO of the precision health company January AI.The branch leading to Hashemi started back in June of 2021 when I interviewed Professor Michael Snyder, the chair of Stanford's Department of Genetics.Snyder is a huge proponent of using wearable devices to help people make better decisions about their own health. In fact, the day we spoke he was wearing seven separate devices, including one called a continuous glucose monitor or CGM.A CGM is standard equipment these days for about 3.5 million diabetics in the U.S. who need to know when their blood sugar is too high and when it's time to take more insulin. But Snyder believes that blood glucose data could also help tens of millions of other people who don't yet take insulin but may be on their way to developing full-blown diabetes.Back in 2016 Snyder got a visit from Hashemi. She's a longtime Silicon Valley tech executive and philanthropist who'd been searching for a way to use AI, wearable devices, and big data to get more people involved in medical research. Hashemi told me it took just two meetings for her and Snyder to decide to join forces to co-found January. The company makes a smartphone app that collects blood glucose data from disposable CGMs, as well as heart rate data from patients' existing wearable devices such as their Fitbit or Apple Watch. The app also makes it easier for users to log the food they eat, and see what impact each food has on their glucose levels. Once the app has enough data, January's machine learning algorithms can start predicting the effects of different foods and activities on blood glucose. It can then recommend meals and exercise that'll help users keep their blood glucose in a healthy target range. The goal isn't to prevent glucose spikes completely, but rather to prevent diabetes from emerging over the long term in people at risk for a cluster of serious conditions known metabolic syndrome. That could help individuals live longer, healthier lives. And at a population level it could save billions in healthcare costs.As you're about to hear, Hashemi and I talked about why glucose monitoring is so important and what companies like January can do in the future to make the predictive power of AI available to more people.Harry Glorikian: Noosheen, welcome to the show. Noosheen Hashemi: Thank you, Harry. Harry Glorikian: So, it's great to have you on the show. It was interesting that, you know, the minute Dr. Snyder mentioned the company, I was immediately Googling it. And I was like, oh, I have to talk to this company. I have to understand what they're doing and, and what's going on.And to be quite honest, I've been doing my homework for the past couple of weeks. And I'm like: I think I have to call my doctor and get a ‘script to actually use the product. Just to help everybody get up to speed on this, can you bring people up to speed on where we are with glucose monitoring and health in general? Whether they have diabetes or whether they're just, you know, what, I, maybe someone like me who I hope is a generally a healthy person.Noosheen Hashemi: Sure, absolutely.  Yeah. So from Mike Snyder's four-year multi-omic IPOP research,  we learned that people who are so-called healthy and have healthy A1C levels could actually have huge glycemic variability. He sometimes calls these people with pre pre-diabetes.  I think eight people developed diabetes during his four-year study.There haven't been enough longitudinal studies in healthy people with glycemic variability to suggest that they will necessarily develop diabetes. So to date, there's really no conclusive evidence that healthy people can benefit from balancing their blood sugar. Also, not all sugar spikes are bad and a two-hour bike ride might produce a big spike, but that's fine. It's not the spike by itself that we worry about. It's really  how high the spike is against our baseline, against the population, whether the spike comes down quickly, the shape of the curve, the area under the curve. These are the things that are illuminating in terms of our state of metabolic health.So  at January we really view metabolic health as a spectrum. So we want to support people to figure out kind of where they are on that spectrum. And to try to really help them move up to healthier points on that spectrum. So we don't see it as a moment in time where you are something or you are not something. You are kind of on a spectrum of metabolic health, and we continuously want you to be self-aware and, and really improve your location on that spectrum. Now, something to keep in mind,  and why I think it's important for people to take action on this, is that 84% of the 88 million people believed to have pre-diabetes today, and 22% of the 34 million people that are believed to have diabetes today, are not diagnosed. They are undiagnosed. That's 75 million people walking around with pre-diabetes and don't even know. So, if we don't measure people's health, that doesn't mean they're healthy.  So we really encourage people to be  you know, vigilant with their health learn so that they can, they can act, you know, self-advocate. Be able to self-manage.So we do think that wearables are an easy, useful way to kind of see where things are, but then you need companies like January to make sense of it all. Harry Glorikian: Yeah. I mean  you know, it's interesting because you know, I'll go to my doctor and they'll do that one time measurement. It's like taking your car in and you're like, it was making a noise. It's not making the noise right now, but, you know, try and diagnose when that event is not happening. Whereas with the wearables, I can, I can actually see, you know, my, my heart rate variability change depending on my exercise process. I can see my sleep change if I had one too many glasses of wine. I have to tell you, I hate it because I would like to have more wine than my monitor allows me to have, but you know, you see the immediate feedback, which would let you sort of course-adjust accordingly. And you know, when I, there was a paper, I believe that was published in Israel where there, I think it was 500 people that they looked at and where you could see that every person, they could eat the same foods, but their spikes would be different or how long that spike would be based on genetics, based on their microbiome. And so if you're not monitoring, how will you know that your quote, healthy diet is actually healthy for you? Noosheen Hashemi: You don't.  You definitely don't. And yes, that's study shows variability between people, but also we've shown glycemic variability for the same person. So we had somebody at the office have the same good sleep nine days in a row, and they had a different glycemic response to that. Mostly every single day, nine days in a row, depending on how much they had slept, how stressed they were, how much workout they had done. And most importantly, how much fiber was in there.  So we are radically different person to person, and this is why we encourage people.  No one is going to know you as well as you do. And no one's going to be as interested in your health as you are  as you should be, as you might be. So we really encourage people to learn, learn, be self-aware self-advocate, self-educate. Harry Glorikian: So, help people understand this term metabolic syndrome, you know, and, and talk about how many people, maybe who are pre-diabetic go to full-blown diabetes, you know? Noosheen Hashemi: Okay. Yeah. So  I mentioned that 122 million people have either diabetes or pre-diabetes in America.  88 million plus 34 [million]. And then a larger number of people, if you believe Mike Snyder's pre-diabetes number, that's even a larger number. But metabolic syndrome is a cluster of conditions that leads to type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. These conditions are basically high blood sugar—which has been historically measured by A1C  blood tests called hemoglobin A1C, but increasingly it's measured by time and range using a CGM—high cholesterol and triglyceride levels, high blood pressure, high BMI, and high waist to hip ratio. So this kind of fat right in the middle.So the 2002 diabetes prevention study showed that unless there's an intervention, 58% of the people that have pre-diabetes could end up with diabetes. And usually they think of this prevention as weight loss.That's what the DPP programs, diabetes prevention programs, are about.So if you have pre-diabetes the cells in your body don't respond normally to insulin. And insulin is a hormone that facilitates your cells taking up glucose, which is a source of energy for your body. Your pancreas basically makes more insulin to try to get the cells to take up glucose. You sort of get into this terrible vicious circle. So eventually your pancreas can't keep up and then you have this sort of excess sugar sitting in your bloodstream, which is really a problem. And it can really lead to microvascular complications like retinopathy or neuropathy or diabetic nephropathy.So as you know, diabetic retinopathy is the most common cause of blindness in working adults in the developed world. And in diabetic neuropathy, essentially high blood sugar can injure nerves throughout the body. And usually damages nerves in the feet, in the legs and feet, which hear about foot ulcers and amputations coming from this.And of course  diabetic kidney disease. Nephropathy is something that  is the number one cause of kidney failure, actually. Almost a third of people with diabetes develop kidney disease. So you add this with the high blood pressure we can increase the force of blood through your arteries and damage arteries. And then you have excess blood pressure, you knowblood pressure and diabetes together, basically increase your risk for heart disease. So it's really a terrible cluster of conditions to have. And so if you have three of these conditions, three of these five, you essentially have metabolic syndrome. And if you have metabolic syndrome, you're at a higher risk of developing these different diseases. You really don't want to go down this path. The path itself is not great. And then the comorbidities from this path are just worse and complications of course are very painful, costly, and potentially, deadly.Harry Glorikian: And so that's one end of the spectrum, but in reality, even someone like me who tries to watch he eats, who goes running regularly, or tries to go running regularly. I mean, you know, I have sleep apnea because they tell me my BMI is too high. Right. So  but this sort of technology, you know, I could be spiking and keeping a high glucose level, which would inhibit my ability to lose weight, et cetera. So how can more data about blood glucose, and its relationship to diet, help people avoid diabetes?Noosheen Hashemi: Yeah. So for so long, we've been able, we've been told just to avoid refined sugar, refined flour, eat a lot of vegetables, walk 10,000 steps. You'll be fine. Or, you know, weight loss is given as the end goal to cure all diseases. You know, why don't you, Harry, drop 25 pounds? Or how about drop 5 to 10% of your weight? Harry Glorikian: Just like that!Noosheen Hashemi: It's true, weight loss really improves biomarkers. But how many people who get this advice can actually do that? And at the timeframe that they need to. So we feel like that's just not a practical approach to solving a problem.A more practical approach is to really figure out what works for each individual. You know, you mentioned you've dialed your own wine drinking based on its impact. I've done the same. I was, you know, enjoying two, three sips of wine. And then I learned that it would wake me up in the middle of the night. So I stopped having even the two, three sips of wine. So don't feel bad that you can't have your second and third and fourth glass. But basically we offer a multitude of levers that you can dial for your lifestyle. For example, intermittent fasting and calorie restriction together have shown benefits in clinical studies for improving insulin sensitivity, if you do them together. So you can't just fast and then gorge yourself. But if you fast and you restrict your calories together, you can really improve insulin sensitivity. So we let you, we help you using the January program to learn to experiment with fasting and calorie restriction and figure out what works for you. How much of it you can make. You know, slowly  help you essentially build it into your habits and your daily routines to fast. You know, we increase your fasting period 15 minutes at a time. So you may start with January you're eating 16 hours a day and you're fasting eight hours. You may end the program having reversed that.And other thing is we, we really pro promote fiber consumption. So increased fiber intake has been associated with higher levels of bacteria-derived short chain fatty acids, which is a regulator of GLP-1 production. As you know, GLP-1 is an incretin and a recognized regulator of glycemic homeostasis and satiety. So we help you track how much fiber you're eating. We encourage you to eat more, knowing what foods spike you, spike your blood sugar, helps you basically eliminate or reduce consumption of those foods. It tells you how much, how much of those things to eat  or alternatives that kind of honor your food preferences  and food tastes, but have lower glycemic index. If you can't walk 10,000 steps a day, okay. January tells you how much you need to walk, when you need to walk to keep your blood sugar in a healthy range. So you really need data  to, to dial your lifestyle. There are many levers and there are no silver bullets and there's too much to keep in your head. Which is why it's nice to have AI sort of help you kind of make, you know, take it all in to a platform and then synthesize it and give you insights.Harry Glorikian: Yeah. I mean, like,  I've got my, my Apple Watch. I've got my, you know, Whoop band. Right.I don't have as many as he [Mike Snyder] does, but  I know, I think my wife would kill me if I, if I was wearing eight things, but, but it's, you know, it's true. Like it's, you know, each one of these, because they're not holistically designed, give me a different piece of data that then I can then react to. You know, one is probably more of a coach that causes me to push a little bit farther, you know, et cetera. So  I mean, I hope one day we evolve to something that's a little bit more holistic so that the average person can sort of, it becomes more digestible and more actionable. But you know, I do believe, based on my conversation with him and even all the work that I do multi-factorial biomarkers or multi biomarkers are going to be how you manage, you know, yourself much better.But you know, tell me how January started. What is the thing that excited you about what you saw and what attracted you to this role? Noosheen Hashemi: Yes, absolutely. So January's origin story started with me deciding in 2016 to start my own company, essentially, after many years of running a family office, investing in, serving on boards of companies and nonprofits.  I had early success at Oracle  where I rose basically from the bottom of the organization in 1985 to vice-president by age 27. Along [with] Mark Benioff, who at the time was 26. It was quite the time, taking the company from $25 million to $3 billion in revenue. So  you know  a really, really amazing tenure there. In 2016, I started this massive research in, into theses that were getting a lot of attention, you know, big trends over the next decade. And most importantly, what I really knew. You know, the classic kind of [inaudible].  I happened to attend a conference, a White House Stanford University conference on societal benefits of AI and how to integrate sort of ever-changing AI into everyday life and into the real world. It was a healthcare panel that took my breath away. So Faith A. Lee who had organized the conference with Russ Goldman. They suggested that interested parties run off to this machine learning and healthcare conference in LA two weeks. I immediately booked my ticket. And there I met Larry Smarr. I don't know if you've come across him or not, but he was the first quantified self, maniacal quantified self person I had come across. And he had diagnosed his own Crohn's disease way before symptoms had manifested. And so, and then the common theme of this conference, between all of these presentations was that machine learning could essentially fill in for missing variables in research, not just going forward, but going backwards. So I was just hooked and I never looked back.But it was a hard problem. My own husband had been investing in healthcare and warned of like an opaque sector. He was like, “Honey, this is heavily regulated incentives are aligned with acute disease, not with chronic disease, not to mention even anything or prevention. It's just not a market economy.” And he knew how interested I am in market economies. My first love before medicine was economics. So that's a whole different podcast. So he warned that I'd be sort of fighting this uphill battle, but I was not discouraged. I basically kept on researching.I came across the MIT economist Andrew Lo. I don't know if you've come across him, but you should definitely talk to him. He's brilliant. His work showed that so little research had been done compared to what we really need to do in terms of medical research. And he comes up with ways of funding, medical research, he has a lot of innovative ways that we could really change  the whole model of medical and scientific research, but it kind of became obvious to me that the answer was that we needed to get everyone involved in research.So just, just putting things in perspective. After Nixon declared a war on cancer 50 years ago, we now have some therapeutics and some solutions to cancer. We have really nothing for neurological diseases. We're spending over $300 billion just on symptoms of Alzheimer's— don't talk about even the cure or anything like that. We have nothing for aging, which is the ultimate killer. So it was, to me, the answer was obvious, which was, we have to get everyone contributing to research. Everyone should be looking at themselves. And then with the data, we can also learn across populations. And so deep phenotyping of the population sort of in a multi-omic way was the answer.And that's what led me to Mike Snyder. I actually looked for multi-omics. I went to Stanford medical school and I met with the CEO. He said, what are you interested in? I said I'm interested in multi-omics. He said, you have to talk to Mike Snyder. And so  basically what Larry Smarr had done at the [San Diego Supercomputer Center] was to measure everything by himself. But Mike had essentially extended this kind of research to others, not just to himself. So not only sort of diagnosed himself with diabetes before the doctors, but he'd also run the Human Microbiome Project, the IPOP study, innumerable other research using metabolomics, proteomics, transcriptomics, wearables, and so on.So he had spent a lifetime studying how people went from healthy to disease essentially. And he had taken a whole person approach, which is what I was interested in.  And so in his role as chairman of genetics at Stanford and head of precision medicine at Stanford, he was kind of already living in the future. And that's kind of where I thought, you know, all of us needed to go. So our first meeting was supposed to take 45 minutes. It took 90 minutes. And in our second meeting, we agreed to join forces. It was like, it was instant.  It was just instant chemistry. Like the universe just brought us together.And then all of a sudden sort of everything fell into place for me. Looking back at my life, I been getting ready for this actually all along. Caring for my dad who had been diagnosed with cancer too late to actually give him  a surviving chance. My mom  had been misdiagnosed with asthma when she had heart failure. So I had to leave my family, you know, everyone get together and really intervene. Really changed her, her lifestyle in order to save her life. She is thankfully now 91 years old and living fine, but it has absolutely no salt in her life and a completely different, different life. My own health, my own health journey sitting in front of a computer for three decades, more than three decades, as we know that now they call it called sitting, you know, Harry Glorikian: Right, the new smoking. Noosheen Hashemi: The new smoking. My experience running a couple of hardware companies, my love of food, and my skills of kind of scaling companies. You know, all of this came together. I just basically became obsessed with prevention and I felt that, you know, food could play an outsized role.So wearables, you know, give you signals from the body continuously, which is incredible.  But you also need to understand what people are eating and, you know, we can talk about that a little bit later, but we can basically now imagine predicting chronic conditions, much like Larry and Mike had. And then, you know, postponing and potentially preventing them. And if they've already started, prevent them. Harry Glorikian: Yeah, I was lucky enough to be there and help when Evidation Health was getting off the ground and, you know, once we started to see the data coming in, I remember looking at the data. Is that real, like, is that actually happening? And I was like, the first thing I was thinking of was like, how do we design a clinical trial? Like if you're going to actually say that's happening, that trial is not going to be trivial to set up, to make that claim, but you could see it in the data.And, you know  I actually think some of the shifts that you're talking about, if it wasn't for things like the Affordable Care Act, if it wasn't for putting EMRs in place, if it wasn't for some of these shifts that have happened, you and I would still be, you know, battling this system that pays you no matter what. Right? And I think now is technology is a way that that can empower the average person to manage their own health. I'm not going to say optimally, but boy, a hell of a lot better than no information. I mean, at least some information can maybe give you an early warning light of something that you might be able to intervene in.And I don't know anybody that likes being sick. I mean, I don't do well when this thing starts to age a little bit and not function the way that I want it to. So I've tried to try and keep it in as good of a running condition as I can. So it lasts as long as possible. I mean, I'm one of those people that would listen if I just drop dead at 95, like just boom gone. I would be so happy. Right. As opposed to this sort of chronic  dynamic. [musical transition]Harry Glorikian: I want to pause the conversation for a minute to make a quick request. If you're a fan of MoneyBall Medicine, you know that we've published dozens of interviews with leading scientists and entrepreneurs exploring the boundaries of data-driven healthcare and research. And you can listen to all of those episodes for free at Apple Podcasts, or at my website glorikian.com, or wherever you get your podcasts.There's one small thing you can do in return, and that's to leave a rating and a review of the show on Apple Podcasts. It's one of the best ways to help other listeners find and follow the show.If you've never posted a review or a rating, it's easy. All you have to do is open the Apple Podcasts app on your smartphone, search for MoneyBall Medicine, and scroll down to the Ratings & Reviews section. Tap the stars to rate the show, and then tap the link that says Write a Review to leave your comments. It'll only take a minute, but it'll help us out immensely. Thank you! And now back to the show.[musical transition]So you mentioned AI, you mentioned machine learning. Where do machine learning and other forms of AI fit into January's service and you know, what do you do on consumer data? What kind of predictions can you make that wouldn't otherwise be possible?Noosheen Hashemi: Okay. I can first talk about exactly that. What did we do that hadn't been done before. What is really unique? What are we filling? So essentially in one word, it is prediction. You said it. So  as you know, there've been, there have been glycemic prediction models for type 1 diabetes, but type 1, as, you know, is a serious condition, which, you know, precision really matters for type one. It's life and death.But there hasn't been much done with type 2 diabetes. And so we set out to do predictions, for type 2 diabetes. And  the type 1 diabetes models are pretty simple. They basically are an insulin-carb calculus, essentially. But as we dug in, we realized that  you know, carbs are not all the same and that there are so many other factors besides carbs that affect glycemic response, including things like fiber fat and protein, water, and foods. We wanted to understand glycemic index and glycemic load of foods. So our major  machine learning  research projects, we basically did research for two and a half years before we sold anything.  One of the first things that we did was to try to understand the foods themselves. So we essentially built the largest database. Essentially we licensed all the, these curated food databases, and then we labeled the foods that didn't have food labels, because right now the only food labeling you really have is like grocery foods and chain restaurants.So we labeled foods and then, recognizing that glycemic response was better associated with glycemic index than carbs alone, we set out to create glycemic index and glycemic load for all these foods. Then we ran a clinical trial and associated people's glycemic response to the glycemic load of foods they were eating. And then we turned that into a prediction. So, the prediction model.  Why is it so cool? Well, why should you use your body to figure out how many glasses of wine is going to spike you? Why not have the AI tell you that? Why not do that in silico?  It's this weekend, you want to cook for your wife. You want to get her the right fried chicken recipe. Well, check those out in January, check out those recipes in January. If you know what the glycemic response of, of each one of those recipes could be, it really helps you compare foods. For kind of recipes you can comparefood items in your local cafe. You want to figure out what to eat. You don't have to put them through your body to figure out how you're going to respond, put them through the AI to figure out how you're going to respond.And then in terms of, you know, how we're different. I mean, we essentially live in the future. We, we don't  we don't live in blood pricks and strips and blood glucose meters. We kind of live in the CGM, HRM (heart rate monitor) precision foodworld. We've turned food into actionable health data, which is a necessary ingredient you need if you want to understand people's glycemic response. And if you want to be able to predict it, and that is our huge innovation that nobody has. And we have quite a bit of IP around it. There are a number of things that we're using. We're using meta-learning.  We're using  neural networks. I don't know how much I should say about what we're using. Yeah. We have one paper that we've put out, which is really, really, really simple.  But we, we always talk about, what kind of papers we want to put out and how much we should put out and how much should we not put out, but essentially you can look at the people that advise the company and you can see that, you know, we have a lot of expertise around  essentially… Harry Glorikian: But Noosheen, when you're doing this right, you need to, at some point, I think you need a baseline on say me for a certain period of time before the algorithm can then respond appropriately to that. And then doesn't that potentially change over time, time you mentioned the yogurt, the meusli, right.  And how that affects. So it's constantly gotta be in a feedback learning loop.Noosheen Hashemi: Yes. Yes. And the beauty of January is that essentially you don't have to wear a CGM 365 days out of the year. We think that with AI, we allow you to wear a CGM intermittently. So maybe you want to wear it every quarter  to update our models  just to see how things are going, but you don't need to wear it all the time. You can wear it for a period of training and then basically run your simulations in silico rather than through your body. Let the AI do the work. So you definitely should wear it intermittently so we can update our, our models because people do age. People do have inflection points in their health. They get pregnant, they travel, a lot of things change, but we don't think it's necessary for healthy people to wear CGMs all year long necessarily. Harry Glorikian: So now we're talking about consumer behavior, right, for a, for a tech product like this. And if, you know, if you look at some of the data that I've read in some of these papers, you know, the potential market is significant. It's, you know, it's quite large. I mean, if I just said, you know, 15% of the people have pre-diabetic levels of glucose after eating, that would translate to like 50 million people in the United States alone. But the service depends on the CGM, the app, the external heart monitor. It's, you know, users have to be diligent about monitoring and logging food intake and activities during the introductory month. So for a quantified self junkie, I get it. They're all over this.  What's the plan for getting everybody else on to this? Noosheen Hashemi: Well, I think it's all about the user experience. And I think we have a, we have a long way to go as an industry and for us as well.As a company we have, what we imagine to be the user experience is nowhere near where we are today.I'm old enough to remember world before Starbucks. So you would see ads on TV for MJB coffee, which is something you made at home. You know, I don't know if you remember that but Starbucks created a new experience, really a place between home and work where you would stop by for coffee.And so the outrage around the, you know, $3, $4 latteat the time, do you remember that?Well, Starbucks continue to improve the experience. They added wi-fi, they had ethical coffee, they had kind of a diverse employee population. People's initial wonder and worry gave way to this, you know, gigantic global brand. And I think all of that is because of the experience that people had. I think we need to make health a positive experience. We need to—we, including January—need to make health something that people….it's going to be a little clunky in the beginning, just like the old, you know, cell phones used to be. But while we're going through this process, the companies need to work on to improve the experience and people need to be patient with the clunkiness of everything  to get us to a place where these things become much, much more pleasant to use and easier to use, and essentially AI starts reading your mind about what you were eating and what you were doing. That is going to happen. You know, I've gotten so used to my Apple Watch now that I actually love it. It actually is doing a very good job training me. Just at the right time, you know, “Come on, you still have a chance. Let's go.” You know, all the things that it's doing  I'm actually liking it. It's it's enjoyable. Because it Is coaching. And I feel like the answer for mass adoption lives in experience. We need to improve the experience dramatically. Harry Glorikian: It's interesting though, because I I'm play with a lot of these different things and I noticed that depending on how they're designed, how they're put together, it nudges me to do that much more or et cetera. I don't always listen. Human beings don't always do what they're supposed to do for their better good. But  you can see how, when the app is designed in a way to nudge someone the right in through the right mechanisms. And that's the problem, right, is trying to—not the same mechanism works on everybody. So you may have to have multiple approaches that the system tries like AB testing for a website to, to get them to do that.But so, if the average person like me wants to do something like this, obviously I have to get a ‘script from my doctor, which just drives me crazy that I can't just—because I can buy a finger-prick, right, over the counter and poke myself a thousand times and then write down these numbers to see what happens. Which seems a little clunky in my opinion. But I can't buy the CGM that does it automatically. There's gotta be some medical person saying like, we're gonna make more money off this if we do this or do that, or, or it just doesn't make any sense to me.  How do you, how does January come at the expense reimbursement or the insured part of it, or is this just out of pocket for everybody? Noosheen Hashemi: Sure. So right now  government insurance, companies, and private insurance companies cover CGMs for people that are intense insulin users. So people that prick themselves four times a day. And so that's three and a half million out of 122 million people that have pre-diabetes or diabetes. So it's a very small population. And the rest is all cash paid. And it it's really out of pocket. So we have an early access price of $288. And we, you know, we include the CGM, but you can also buy CGMs only from January. You can just, if you just want a CGM, you don't want to do anything else. You're just curious. You want an introduction to this world? You can order a CGM from January for $80 if you want to do that. So if you're one of the 12 million people that are insured by Kaiser—and Kaiser doctors will not write you a prescription, you can go to your doctor and ask them, they won't write you a prescription—come to January. We will give you a CGM. You can be introduced to the program and then, you know, take, take up January from there and experience the magic of CGMs alone. I really do think they are a magical product because they they're showing you for the first time you kind of can see inside your body, which is really phenomenal. Unfortunately by themselves, they're not that effective and they're not that effective by themselves longitudinally. So if you really want to keep track of how you've been doing, what food spiked you, how you can, you know, what kind of exercise, things like that. They don't really have that additional intelligence, but they are magical, they are really magical tools. But, you know, you want an insightful experience on top of that. With the AI that can essentially synthesize this kind of data from your heart rate, monitor from your food, from your glucose monitor and sort of let you know how much to eat, what to eat, how to hack your food, how much to walk, how much, how much to fast, when to fast, how much fiber you're having, not having. That's where we come in. Harry Glorikian: I feel like at some point I'm going to need a big monitor in my house that just tells me these things as I'm walking by. But you know, it, it's interesting. I mean, we are entering the era of real wearables and apps and big data and, and, you know, but here's the question though. Soyou know, Apple just announced what's going to be the update to their iOS and, you know, pretty soon I'm going to be able to push a button and share data with my physician.  Which is funny because I go in his office and I pull up my phone and I'm like, here's my longitudinal. And here's my longitudinal. And I'm like, look, you can take the measurement because you're supposed to, but here's how it looks over the last three months as opposed to the one time when I'm here. Can January's customers export and share the data with their doctor? Noosheen Hashemi: We have a report  midstream at 14 days that you can share  with, with your doctor. But of course we intend to, you know, we have features planned that are going to make things way more easily done, much more easily in the future. We really strongly believe that people should own their own health data. We are huge advocates for people owning their own health data, because there are a lot of people hanging onto your health data and they don't want to give it to you. I'm talking about device makers and others. You're paying for the device, which comes with the data, but they don't want you to have the data. So they're like, “You can have the data and study it yourself, but you can't give that data to other people.” But that doesn't work.We are living in a multi-omics world. Single 'omics by themselves, the single side node biomarkers, you know, “Harry, you just manage your cholesterol. Noosheen, you can't keep two things in your head. Why don't you just manage your A1C? And Mike, you should watch your blood pressure.” That just doesn't work. There are many, many markers that you've just, as you just said, that we need to keep in our heads. We can't keep them in our heads, but that's where AI comes in. We need to feed them into something and people must have the right to own their data and share their data with whoever they want. If it's their coach, it's their doctor, it's their wife or spouse or significant other, their dog. They should be able to share the data that they own.As long as they provision it properly to whoever they want to give it to because you know, someone doesn't want their employer to know X, Y, and Z. Somebody else wants their coach to know that is people's rights. And coming from kind of a libertarian point of view, I really think people, you know, people should own their own data and they should be able to mix it with other data  for synthesis, if they want to. Harry Glorikian: Yeah, it's interesting. I mean, I totally believe in that. I always, I also understand that people may not understand the implications of sharing sometimes.  And that's not clear, but I do believe that the next iteration of where we're going to see this technology go is multifactorial software programs that can take a number of different inputs to give a much more holistic view of what's going on with me, so I can manage myself better share that information. My biggest worry is most physicians I know are—it's not totally like, it's not their fault, right….Noosheen Hashemi: They're so busy, so they're spending 15 minutes a year with you. And during that 15 minutes, you know, they're taking a point in time, you know, to see a snapshot of your health. And your health is way more complicated than that. We're talking about reverse engineering, 5 billion, years of evolution. And you know, they're going to get, see if such an infinite small part of that. We need to be way more self-aware.Harry Glorikian: Well, it's funny because I do have, some of my physician friends will be like, you want me to understand that genomic marker that whatever, like, I can't, I can't get my patient to manage their insulin level!Noosheen Hashemi: I have a lot of empathy for that. They just don't have the time.  I completely fully understand. Which is why I think we should carry more of the, we should have more agency over our health and we should carry the burden a little bit more.Harry Glorikian: So what is wild success for January? Noosheen Hashemi: Well, we want to keep on this path of developing our multi-omic platform. We want to essentially  help people understand themselves deeply and figure out how to dial their lifestyles and sort of tweak and tune their health. This is non-trivial obviously because there's not enough research in food science or enough research on prevention. You know, out of the $3.8 trillion that we spend on healthcare, 2.9% goes to prevention and 10% goes to acute care end of life care. Just think about that. More than three times as much goes to end of life acute care than goes to prevention. And I'm talking about healthcare costs, I'm not talking about research costs in terms of what NIH and USAID and all of those people spend. So there's not enough research that's happening. You know, people's health data is not organized today. I'm sure there are companies who are trying to organize the world's data. You know, the company that tries to organize the world's data is trying to organize your health data. So I think that's pretty smart.  I think today it's still very opaque and it lives in silos, but I think in the future is going to be mixed.  I think today people just aren't fully empowered yet, you know, with the knowledge and with the agency and with the tools they need to really manage their health.Wild success for us means that people, that we're part of this revolution of consumerized healthcare. We're part of the food-as-medicine revolution, the precision nutrition revolution. So we see ourselves coming up with tools that can essentially get amazing experiences in the hands of millions of people.If you can think about a company like Livongo going public with 192,000 patients. Or if you think about everyone that's playing in the metabolic health today, if you put 12 or 13 companies together, maybe they have a million users, or maybe a million and a half users. Where is that compared to 122 million people that have pre-diabetes diabetes and another a hundred million people that are optimizers? They're either wearing a wearable, they belong to a gym, they're on a diet. You have the entire population as your market. And we have very little that has really made a major foray into health. So wild success means having a product that becomes mainstream. Harry Glorikian: So I think what you're saying is January is moving beyond just CGMs and metabolic syndrome, right?Noosheen Hashemi: Absolutely. Yeah, we, we imagine ourselves, we have built an expandable platform. Our goal is to keep doing deep phenotyping. So we will add 'omics  you will see us adding 'omics beyond what we have today. You will see us  get to other cardio-metabolic disease, you know, cardiometabolic disease, essentially going beyond metabolic disease to the rest ofmetabolic syndrome. You'll see us be ahardware-agnostic company. We want to essentially let people wear whatever they want.  Whatever works for them and, and still try to bring that data, synthesize it and make sense of it and feed it back to them so they can take action. Harry Glorikian: Excellent. Well, that's, that's a great way to end the program with. We have so much more to see from the company and what it's going to be able to do with the data and, and, and help  you know, people live a healthier life. Or like I said, with me I'm constantly trying to measure what's going on. It's just distilling it to make it easily consumable to do what I need to do rather than have me learn statistics so that I can figure it out. Noosheen Hashemi: We have to get, all of us need to get better than that. I remember when I first put on my Oura ring, you know, there's, you know, most people  first when they wear their Fitbits, you know, first it was like, how much did I sleep? And then they kind of learned about REM and sort of deep sleep and then slowly. And then Oura came and then it was like, oh, and Whoop had already had heart rate variability, but then, you know, Oura came in with their other markers, you know, restfulness. And efficiency, sleep efficiency and timing, et cetera. And so people are slowly wrapping their heads around this. It takes a little whil. And yes, January gives you a lot of levers. You know, there's fasting, there's fiber, there's calorie management. There's you know, the spikers. There is the activity counterfactuals—I ate this, but had I eaten this other thing, this would have been my glycemic response. Or had I walked X number of minutes after that, this would have been my glycemic response. At the beginning it's a lot, but that's where it goes back to the experience. We must make the experience enjoyable and better, and we must, companies like us should strive to make the experience enjoyable, make them fantastic consumer experiences like Apple products. But remember Apple's 45 years old and we're just getting going with this, But [Apple is] a great role model. Harry Glorikian: Wellyou know, my doctor may not like it, but I may have to get one of these. He's listening to this podcast. I know that he will, because he always comments on them. Noosheen Hashemi: We're definitely doing that. And you know what? You can have Mike Snyder, you can chat with Mike  about your numbers after. That would be a lot of fun.Harry Glorikian: Excellent. Oh, I look forward to it. So thank you so much for participating. Noosheen Hashemi: Thank you, Harry. It was pleasure.Harry Glorikian: That's it for this week's show. You can find past episodes of MoneyBall Medicine at my website, glorikian.com, under the tab “Podcast.” And you can follow me on Twitter at hglorikian.  Thanks for listening, and we'll be back soon with our next interview.

Brad Dude has over 40 years and he has been in more than 30 territories and countries around the world. He has provided leadership training, organizational development, program evaluation, workforce training, coaching and project management services to US Government agencies, public and non-profit organizations and private sector enterprises. He specializes in training, group facilitation, process improvement, team building and strategic planning, especially for newly promoted team leaders, supervisors, managers and executives.   Brad brings a leadership and management background to his consulting having served as a senior staff member for the Peace Corps in Micronesia and Samoa. He has also worked in similar positions for other organizations in the Washington, DC area as well as New Orleans, where he now makes his home with his wife Sue. He has one son and three grandsons.   Questions   Could you tell us a little bit about your journey? It's a long journey, because your bio said over 40 years. Maybe you could condense it a little bit for us. But just tell us how it is that you got to where you are today in your own words. Your most recent book that you have published called Quick!, could you share with our listeners a little bit about that book and what is it all about? How as a leader, as a manager, as a business owner over the past couple of decades have you been able to get those leaders on board to recognize that customer experience is so important? Could you share with us what's the one online resource, tool, website or app that you absolutely can't live without in your business? Do you have maybe one or two books that have had the biggest impact on you? It could have been a book that you read a very long time ago, or even a book that you read recently, but it really has resonated with you. We have a lot of listeners who are business owners and managers who feel they have great products and services, but they lack the constantly motivated human capital. If you're sitting across the table from that person, what's the one piece of advice that you would give them to have a successful business? Could you share with us what's the one thing that's going on in your life right now that you're really excited about? It could be something that you're working on to develop yourself or your people. Where can listeners find you online? Do you have a quote or a saying that during times of adversity or challenge, they will tend to revert to it kind of helps to refocus them or get them back on track? Do you have one of those?   Highlights   Brad's Journey   Brad shared that it is kind of a long journey, it gets longer every day, it seems like. He started out doing a management planning for the Peace Corps overseas in a variety of countries, mostly in the Pacific and then in the Middle East. And that got him into working for Westinghouse that brought him more into the middle East doing some project management for USAID projects and West Bank and Gaza. And that got him into the training more in the project management and coaching and counselling and they were doing a lot of executive coaching on management and leadership kinds of issues. Some colleagues of his started their own consulting firm in the DC area and that's where he got to go to Jamaica for the first time in kind of the middle to late 80s doing a management analyst course.   Ministry of Planning and they met that time and it was great. And so he got four different trips down to Jamaica and participants were some of the best he's ever had all over the world. So as he got older and wanted to jot down some of the things that he would do that seem to be fairly successful with his participants and clients, he started to write books. And so he has now got six books, they're up on Amazon, mostly dealing with leadership and temperament and how new leaders view their world and try to help them out that way.   Brad's Book “Quick!” What is it About?     Brad shared that his book, it's called Quick!: I Need to Be a Leader in 30 Days!. And it's a title that is focused on newly promoted or newly hired managers, supervisors and leaders. What he found, for example, the last 9 years, he has been teaching a leadership class for NASA, just outside of Washington, DC.   And he found that although when you're in the classroom, face to face, it's great and people seem to get things. But with training, training with organizations, even in government is often the first thing that's cut.   And so, participants might go through one 12-day course or something, and then don't hear from them again, and they maybe come back or write or ask for coaching and they felt there was a need to encapsulate in a handy guide of what somebody can do every day, because a lot of the questions are, “I have the title of leader or manager or supervisor, but what do I do?”   And so, he focused on what to do over a 30-day period and the idea was to help newly promoted folks hit the ground running so they can have some success. And I had Scott Blanchard, who is the now the President of the Ken Blanchard company. He wrote the foreword to their book, and he mentioned that over 50 million millennials are working in North America alone with 10 million in management, he estimates about 2 million new managers every year.   But the first year is very important and people usually don't get trained during their first year. So there's a lot of failure, failure by not meeting their own goals, expectations of their company aren't met. And they thought that's the time to really help them and have a guide to help them be successful. So they put together this book and basically said, how do you be a leader in 30 days?   Well, he has got four steps. First was to understand some of the basic principles of leadership and he subjectively picked the ones that he felt have been most successful for new managers and leaders. And then step two was to look at their followers, learn about who are those folks that are looking to you for guidance. Third step practical applications, you can't just read a book, put it on a shelf and say, “I'm a leader”, you got to go out and do something, and practice. So in his book, he has practical readings and exercises, and especially the fourth step, which is have some reflection and support time. And that means identifying a coach, whether it be your supervisor, or mentor, or a friend, or a colleague, or your minister, whoever that is that you can bounce some ideas off of. And ultimately, they can give you some feedback as well on how you're doing.   Me: Now, as it relates to who are your followers, if this is an employee in an organization, is it persons that look up to that person who now is the manager or leader? Is that what you mean?   Brad agreed. But it's more than that. Ken Blanchard says it the best, he says, “Lead from wherever you are in the organization.” So you don't necessarily have to have a title of manager, supervisor, leader to exhibit leadership behaviours. And so, whoever that is, and so, in the book, they are considering clients, people that report to you, people that you report to as well are all potential followers.   Me: Okay, so those are some really, really good strategies that you can employ for persons, as you mentioned, who are transitioning into that management/leadership role.   The Importance of Customer Experience   Me: Now, leadership is so critical to customer experience and there's a saying that I have “That mud flows from the top of the stream.” When you find something that's going awry in an organization, a lot of times, it's not at the tip of where you're looking at that the problem probably evolved from, but more so, you need to look at the leader and the structure of the organization and what's happening at the top.   And so I wanted to speak a little bit about that for us, what if we have an organization where the leader doesn't see the importance of customer experience, they're not able to connect the two, they're not able to connect the financial, because a lot of leaders, I think, still believe to this day that customer experience is just about making the customer feel good and they're just not able to see that translate into a very tangible and financial way. How as a leader, as a manager, as a business owner over the past couple of decades have you been able to get those leaders on board to recognize that customer experience is so important?   Brad shared that it's a challenge and there are many, many examples where leaders just don't get it, because they are trapped into the idea that their position power is what's important, and not so much their customers or their followers.   So they've done a lot of different ways, it depends on the openness of the leader. He worked with Department of Energy, their nuclear division for a while and they had a leader and oftentimes, these are political types who get in for whatever reason, not necessarily their leadership abilities. And they just don't see it, it's checking the box, “Oh, well, I've had a training. Check. I've had a meeting with a customer. Check.”   And things don't go the way they should. What he typically does is do a series of interviews with the direct reports of such a leader to start to identify what are the true challenges in the organization. He really likes the idea about modelling the way and trying to talk to the leader about trying to be more of an exemplary leader. But also he likes the idea about challenging the process.   They have in the book, this is the Kouzes and Posner five practices of exemplary leadership - Modelling the way, Inspiring a shared vision, Challenging the process, Enabling others to Act and Courage the heart.   He likes to do a lot of process improvement with folks and they get a whiteboard and actually start to draw a schematic of the customer service process and who's supposed to do what to whom. And he doesn't do it as a group, he usually brings in parts because people, oftentimes in such a process are doing it, if they say it's a five-part process, he brings in the folks who are doing part three, and let them do some drawings and say, “Oh, this is supposed to happen, that's supposed to happen.”   And they go away and they bring in people from the first group, for example. So they end up with kind of this gigantic map done by different groups. And what they find is they're in consistencies, expectations are off, somebody expects this group to be able to give them this kind of information, and it's not happening. So then you kind of try to bring that leader in to show him or her what kind of mess they're in and have some ideas, some strategies for helping them improve that process.   App, Website or Tool that Brad Absolutely Can't Live Without in His Business   When asked about an online resource that he cannot live without in his business, Brad shared that the website he likes the most it's called www.life-changingworkshops.com. And this is out of Chapala Institute. It's based on a new book come out by Ken Nelson and some others, a variety of authors on it called Designing and Leading Transformational Workshops. He thinks for a new leader, outside of his own books, he thinks that's a really good one and that's a great website that they have as well. Another one is called www.ascenddevelopmentgroup.com. And this is run by a friend of his, Jeff Whitehead, they both did training at NASA together. He does outdoor experiential leadership workshops and it's a very interesting website to show videos of how he interjects leadership into rope climbing and things like that.   Books That Have Had the Greatest Impact on Brad    When asked about books that have the biggest impact, Brad shared that there are several, one was called Why Him? Why Her?: How to Find and Keep Lasting Love by Dr. Helen Fisher. Brad is the co-author of a new model on looking at temperament called The Basic Elements of Temperament. And a lot of their work, his late partner, Jim harden, they did that together. And Dr. Fisher kind of did similar kind of research, but on a larger scale dealing with some of the dating websites to look at how temperament influences the way we look at other people, the behaviours of others. Now, he and Jim, they're not looking at dating, they're looking at how leaders look at their employees and their managers and their customers. So that book, Why Him? Why Her? is a really good one by Dr. Fisher to kind of give some basics as well. He also likes John Kotter's work out of Harvard, “What Leaders Really Do.” He's written a number of books on leadership and he just loves those books that really gets him thinking about leadership more.   Advice for Business Owner to Have a Successful Business   Brad stated that the one piece of advice, it's hard to have one, but trust is a big issue and in his leadership courses that he has done in the past, trust is a big issue and that gets into a variety of things, including how to model the way and not making promises that you can't keep and being consistent and things like that.   But he probably would spend time with a leader talking about temperament. His experience has been the difficulties that folks have with being professional, being productive, has a lot to do with their experience with their manager or their supervisor when they're not getting along, when they feel they're not being listened to, that is a de-motivator.   And people leave organizations, they don't leave them because of the job or the work, it's usually because of the relationship with their manager or supervisor. But he would spend some time trying to talk about how they are viewing the world, how they look at their position power. There's three kinds of power, they have it in the book as well.   The lowest level of leadership is the position power; it's having that title. And it seems that's where everybody wants to be, “If I was only the boss, then I would solve all the problems.”   And then they get to be the boss and they realize, “Oh, it's not as easy as I thought.” But they'd say, now I'm there, now they've got to do what I'm telling them to do. So that means your followers are following you because of the negative consequences if they don't, that they could be fired, they could be assigned to lousy jobs, what have you. So it's the lowest level, and that's a power that doesn't stay with you, when that manager leaves the organization, that power doesn't go with him or her, it stays for the next person that's coming. So it's not even a power that you take with you.   So that's the lowest level. The second one is that power of competence. That's where followers follow you because of what you've done for the organization, because of what you've done for them. So that gets you into a mindset of “Gee, if I want to be competent, I need to be really sharp and look for opportunities to help my employees.”   And the third, the best kind of power that a leader can get is the power of positive reputation. And that's why no matter what your title is, people follow you because of who you are. They'll do whatever needs to be done if you ask them because of who you are, and what you stand for, and the values that you bring to the organization.   What Brad is Really Excited About Now!   Brad shared that during this pandemic, not a lot of training was going on, especially not a lot of leadership training, he has done a few zoom workshops over Zoom with 50/60 people. And there's just not as many as there used to be. So he has had a lot of time and so he's writing a novel called “Finding Eden.” And it's based on kind of his travels throughout the Middle East and the issue about asylum seekers trying to find a better life. So he's writing a novel, just about done. So he's very excited about that right now.   Where Can We Find Brad Online   Website – www.braddude.com LinkedIn – Brad Dude   Quote or Saying that During Times of Adversity Brad Uses   Brad stated that he does have a quote, the one he kind of refers to now and then, not every day, but sometimes. It's says, “Don't let yesterday take up too much of today.” And that was written by Will Rogers. So the idea is, don't get bogged down with what you've done in the past. Today's a new day and we need to go head on into the future.   Please connect with us on Twitter @navigatingcx and also join our Private Facebook Community – Navigating the Customer Experience and listen to our FB Lives weekly with a new guest   Grab the Freebie on Our Website – TOP 10 Online Business Resources for Small Business Owners   Links Quick! I Need to Be a Leader in 30 Days! by Brad Dude Why Him? Why Her?: How to Find and Keep Lasting Love by Dr. Helen Fisher   The ABC's of a Fantastic Customer Experience   Do you want to pivot your online customer experience and build loyalty - get a copy of “The ABC's of a Fantastic Customer Experience.”   The ABC's of a Fantastic Customer Experience provides 26 easy to follow steps and techniques that helps your business to achieve success and build brand loyalty. This Guide to Limitless, Happy and Loyal Customers will help you to strengthen your service delivery, enhance your knowledge and appreciation of the customer experience and provide tips and practical strategies that you can start implementing immediately! This book will develop your customer service skills and sharpen your attention to detail when serving others. Master your customer experience and develop those knock your socks off techniques that will lead to lifetime customers. Your customers will only want to work with your business and it will be your brand differentiator. It will lead to recruiters to seek you out by providing practical examples on how to deliver a winning customer service experience!

Ron Enzweiler discusses the unlearned lessons of America's wasteful and doomed wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. First of all, he says, we should have known that the only thing keeping Iraq together was Saddam Hussein's stranglehold on power, which prevented a civil war from breaking out. After the United States deposed him, explains Enzweiler, those tensions were going to bubble over no matter what. The best thing to do now would be to leave Iraq as soon as possible, but stubborn superstitions like the "safe haven" myth and the idea that President Obama pulled troops out too quickly make it hard for anyone to push withdrawal even today. In the case of Afghanistan, Enzweiler says that some fear the Taliban will not only take over that country, but will also try to export their vision of Islam to other nations. But this is a fundamental misunderstanding of who the Taliban are and what they want. They aren't jihadists, says Enzweiler—they just want to spread their way of life within their own country and keep out foreign occupiers who try to change that. Social progress and cosmopolitanism may come to Afghanistan eventually, but we cannot force those things at the point of a gun. Discussed on the show: "Iraq and Afghan Wars: Requiem for America's Ineffectual War State" (Antiwar.com) Ron Enzweiler is an air force veteran and worked for USAID in Iraq for seven years. He is the author of When Will We Ever Learn. You can follow his writing at Antiwar.com. This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State and Why The Vietnam War?, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods' Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; EasyShip; Thc Hemp Spot; Green Mill Supercritical; Bug-A-Salt; Lorenzotti Coffee; Zippix Toothpicks and Listen and Think Audio. Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG. https://youtu.be/peS8-qTYS3Y

Ron Enzweiler discusses the unlearned lessons of America's wasteful and doomed wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. First of all, he says, we should have known that the only thing keeping Iraq together was Saddam Hussein's stranglehold on power, which prevented a civil war from breaking out. After the United States deposed him, explains Enzweiler, those tensions were going to bubble over no matter what. The best thing to do now would be to leave Iraq as soon as possible, but stubborn superstitions like the "safe haven" myth and the idea that President Obama pulled troops out too quickly make it hard for anyone to push withdrawal even today. In the case of Afghanistan, Enzweiler says that some fear the Taliban will not only take over that country, but will also try to export their vision of Islam to other nations. But this is a fundamental misunderstanding of who the Taliban are and what they want. They aren't jihadists, says Enzweiler—they just want to spread their way of life within their own country and keep out foreign occupiers who try to change that. Social progress and cosmopolitanism may come to Afghanistan eventually, but we cannot force those things at the point of a gun. Discussed on the show: "Iraq and Afghan Wars: Requiem for America's Ineffectual War State" (Antiwar.com) Ron Enzweiler is an air force veteran and worked for USAID in Iraq for seven years. He is the author of When Will We Ever Learn. You can follow his writing at Antiwar.com. This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State and Why The Vietnam War?, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods' Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; EasyShip; Thc Hemp Spot; Green Mill Supercritical; Bug-A-Salt; Lorenzotti Coffee; Zippix Toothpicks and Listen and Think Audio. Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjYu5tZiG. https://youtu.be/peS8-qTYS3Y

My guest today is Julie Colombino-Billingham, founder of Deux Mains, which means “two hands,” a Haitian-owned and operated business that handcrafts high-quality footwear, handbags and accessories. 97% of all raw materials are repurposed or sourced locally on the island and manufactured in their 100% solar-powered factory. Use code MOLLY to get 15% off from DeuxMains at Deuxmains.com! 5:28 – Julie 101 She was a professional ballet dancer and worked for Cirque USA. She is also a trained disaster responder. She got a full-time job at the United Way and wanted to respond to the Haiti earthquake. 9:10 – Going to Haiti Julie landed in Haiti 10 days after the earthquake and said the destruction was like nothing she had ever seen before. She remembers more of what she smelled and heard versus what she saw. Julie met a woman at a tent camp, and the woman said she didn't want bottles of water – she wanted a job. 10:46 – The beginning of Deux Mains After a month in Haiti, Julie came back to Florida, sold her house, quit her job at the United Way and went back to Haiti two weeks later with $7,000. They raised money and started an education and job training program. 21:49 – New jobs They have a beautiful factory that is all solar powered. Their goal is to create 300 new jobs in the next three years. People wanted recycled fashion, but they didn't want it to look recycled. 33:34 – The business today The business has 40 employees and was able to continue during Covid. They got some government contracts. They had to change their business model and now do more direct to consumer sales. 35:30 – Expanding product line They didn't want to waste anything, so they started making earrings out of leather scraps. Customers started asking for specific products, including a laptop sleeve. They are working on a woman's wallet. FEATURED QUOTES “A woman I met in a tent camp said she didn't want any bottles of water – she wanted a job.” “I get to be the proud voice of many people who have made us what we are today.” “It's a gift anytime we get feedback – good or bad – because we're still learning.” CONNECT: https://deuxmains.com/ - use code MOLLY for 15% off ABOUT JULIE: To sustainably fight poverty in Haiti, Julie Colombino-Billingham created a business that provides great, dignified jobs.  Deux Mains is a Haitian owned and operated business that handcrafts high-quality, footwear, handbags and accessories.  97% of all raw materials are repurposed or sourced locally on the island, and manufactured in our solar powered factory.  In a country where 85% of the population does not have access to the formal jobs and only 1% of the population is University educated, Colombino designed a model using the best practices of the nonprofit and for profit sectors.  She incubated a nonprofit arm of the business called REBUILD globally that provides revolutionary education and paid job training programs to the most vulnerable.  Every program graduate is then guaranteed a dignified, living wage job at Deux Mains. Under Colombino's leadership, the past 10 years has been a dramatic evolution from earthquake recovery to a sustainable and eco-friendly business that was quickly propelled into the world of ethical fashion. Just a few of the partnerships deux mains has created include: United Nations, Kenneth Cole, Eileen Fisher, USAID and the Clinton Foundation to fight poverty and strengthen families in Haiti and provide customers a fashion accessory brand they can be proud to wear. THANK YOU TO OUR PARTNER:  Ready to ditch the bleach forever but can't find a bleach alternative that actually works? You've got to meet this Extra Strength Oxygen Powder by MamaSuds. It launches July 15th and I've had the chance to try it out early and I love it so much! It really tackles the dirt and odor in our clothes. And as usual there are multiple uses for this new product. Not only is it a laundry booster and stain remover, but it's a great scouring agent on any non-porous surface. If you head to their website and sign up for their email list you'll get an email with an early bird special coupon when oxygen powder launches PLUS use discount code MOLLY and get an EXTRA 15% off! www.mamasuds.com

We're blessed to sit down with Dr. Charity Dean, the central figure of Michael Lewis' pandemic book, The Premonition, former Assistant Director of the California Department of Public Health in 2020, and co-founder of The Public Health Company. Her premonition on her birthday in December 2019 — a “giant blue tsunami wave” engulfing the US - prompted her to track what was happening in China “obsessively.” She became part of the executive team that devised Governor Newson's operational pandemic plan. She also joined in 2020 the Red Dawn group, “a tactical warfare group” of “Wolverines” and other pandemic experts advising state governors as well as the Trump administration. She founded PHC in the spring of this year to create new software platforms for the private sector to manage the risks of future pandemics. Listen to learn more. Dr. Charity Dean, MD, MPH&TM, is co-founder and CEO of The Public Health Company.

Washington Post ace reporters Yasmeen Abutaleb and Damian Paletta take us inside their newly released blockbuster, "Nightmare Scenario: Inside the Trump Administration's Response to the Pandemic That Changed History." A gripping, provocative tour d'horizon. Give a listen.

Earl Young, a gold metal Olympian and cancer survivor, shares about the importance of becoming a bone marrow donor. It's easy, painless, and could save a life.Earl Young has served in the role of Advisor, Corporate Officer and Director, of companies in the United States and abroad. He has business experience with Fortune 5000 companies and Investment Banking firms in New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, Vancouver and London. Mr. Young has worked with Presidents, Cabinet Ministers and Ambassadors of many of the World Bank approved countries of sub-Sahara and has led negotiations with OPIC, World Bank and USAID in their behalf and that of public and private corporations. Working with U.S. Senators and Congressmen, Mr. Young has secured representation for funding in the U.S. Appropriations Bills of 2007 and 2008.Mr. Young serves as a Director of Corporate Council on Africa (CCA) www.africacncl.org, a Washington D.C. based organization with a corporate membership that represents over 90% of all United States private sector investment in Africa. CCA is dedicated to enhancing trade and investment between the United States and the 54 nations of Africa. Additionally, he has served as a member of the CCA HIV/AIDS Task Force. He serves on the Board of Directors of Diamond Fields Resources Inc. an international mineral exploration company with headquarters in Vancouver, B.C., with properties in Namibia, Madagascar, and Saudi Arabia. He is a past Director of Madagascar Resources an Australian based heavy mineral exploration and mining company.Mr. Young is a member of the Abilene Christian University Council and a Director of the American Studies Institute Advisory Board of Harding University in Searcy Arkansas, Past President of the U.S. Madagascar Business Council and was President of the Madagascar Health and Education Foundation.As President and CEO of Madagascar World Voice (MWV), a philanthropic organization, Mr. Young assisted World Christian Broadcasting (WCB) with the building of a shortwave radio station in Mahajunga, Madagascar. WCB has been broadcasting into the former USSR, Pacific Rim and China for over 30 years, in English, Russian and Chinese. The combined stations have now added Spanish and Portuguese now broadcast to the 3 billion shortwave receivers around the world.A world class athlete at the age of 19, Mr. Young was a member of the 1960 United States Olympic Track and Field Team winning a Gold Medal in the 1600 meter relay while setting a new Olympic and World Record. Mr. Young represented the United States on the 1963 Pan American Team winning two Gold Medals and also ran on numerous international teams establishing 4 World Records an Olympic Record and 3 American Records. He is an All-American in Track and Field and was on the cover of Sports Illustrated in June of 1961. He is a member of the Texas High School Coaches Hall of Fame and served as President of the Texas Chapter of Olympians. Mr. Young has served as a Board Member of the U.S. Olympic Alumni Association and was the founding Chairman of the Olympians for Olympians Relief Fund.On September 16, 2010 Mr. Young was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia and was the recipient of a Bone Marrow Transplant on January 21, 2011.Earl Young's Team www.earlyoungsteam.com was founded April 2015 with the objective of increasing awareness and registering Donors of stem cells or bone marrow to save lives of those diagnosed with blood cancer. Over 16,000 Donors have been registered through this Foundation and 47 people have been given a chance at extended lives through transplants from matching Donors. Mr. Young has spoken on numerous University Campuses in conjunction with Drives and last year was Featured Speaker at the National Student Nurses Association Summer Conference.To learn more, contact Earl at Earl@EarlYoungsTeam.com.Finish Your Racehttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/finish-your-race/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/earl-young-shares-how-registering-to-be-a-bone-marrow-donor-could-save-a-life

The Global Gag Rule has been intermittently preventing global communities from accessing comprehensive healthcare for the last 37 years. This Global Gag Rule Repeal Week of Action, it's important to recognize that ending this harmful policy is extremely urgent. Rebecca Dennis, Senior Legislative Policy Analyst at PAI, sits down to update us on the Global Gag Rule, the impacts it has had around the world, and what we can do to make sure it is repealed once and for all. The Global Gag Rule is an executive-level policy that has existed under every Republican presidential administration since Ronald Reagan, but was vastly expanded under Donald Trump. The policy under Trump withheld global health assistance funding from foreign NGOs unless they agree to not use any of their own, non-U.S. funding to provide abortions or any information, education, counseling, or referrals for abortion care. This was a huge expansion compared to under previous administrations where it only applied to family planning funding.  To learn more about the history of the Global Gag Rule, find our podcast episode here! The Global Gag Rule has prevented people around the world from accessing sexual and reproductive health care, maternal and child health care, HIV testing and treatment, tuberculosis and malaria testing and treatment, and nutrition programs. It has limited which commodities—including methods of contraception—can reach communities, and caused organizations to have to end entire programs. The rule has also restricted outreach to hard-to-reach communities, including young people, LGBTQI+ people, and those living in very rural areas or refugee camps. For many years, the policy only applied to U.S. family planning and reproductive health programs. But after the Trump administration's entry into the Oval Office in January of 2017, one of their first executive actions included re-instating and massively expanding the Global Gag Rule to impact all U.S. global health assistance funding. This expansion went above and beyond USAID, ultimately impacting programs in the State Department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The administration expanded it a second time, changing the interpretation of the policy and forcing organizations that were complying with the policy to ensure that any of their partnerships were complying, as well even if they did not get any impacted U.S. health funding.  In January of 2021, the Biden-Harris administration repealed the Global Gag Rule. Despite this momentous step, the policy is not a light switch that can be turned on and off. Many organizations who did not comply with the rule now have to wait until there are additional funding opportunities with the U.S. government, while some are concerned that the policy might return and interrupt their work, again. Even beyond all of this, clinics have closed, and staff have been laid off around the world due to this rule.  Congress has the ability to amend the Foreign Assistance Act and clarify that an organization cannot be deemed ineligible to receive U.S. global health assistance on the basis of the services they provide. Passing the Global Health, Empowerment, and Rights Act (Global HER Act) would prevent the Global Gag Rule from ever being re-instated again.  Support the show (https://www.reprosfightback.com/take-action#donate)

Food processing is also vulnerable to ransomware: the case of multi-national meat-provider JBS. The US and Russia are in communication about the possibility that the criminals responsible for the JBS incident might be harbored in Russia. Domains used in the USAID impersonation campaign have been seized by the US Justice Department. Our guest is Melissa Gaddis from TransUnion with results from their Global Consumer Pulse study. Joe Carrigan looks at criminals abusing online search ads. Siemens addresses a critical issue in its PLCs. For links to all of today's stories check out our CyberWire daily news brief: https://www.thecyberwire.com/newsletters/daily-briefing/10/105

Iran’s wiper attacks may have been posing as criminal gang capers. CISA issues an alert on the USAID Constant Contact credential compromise. European governments express concern over reports of US surveillance (enabled, allegedly, by Danish organizations). Epsilon Red ransomware is out and active. Ben Yelin looks at Florida Governor DeSantis’ bill aimed at Social Media companies. Our guest is Giovanni Vigna from VMware with highlights from their 2020 Threat Landscape Report. And police come looking for cannabis farming and find coin-mining rigs instead. For links to all of today's stories check out our CyberWire daily news brief: https://www.thecyberwire.com/newsletters/daily-briefing/10/104

A phishing campaign this week appears to be the work of Russia’s SVR. Chinese government threat actors continue to exploit unpatched Pulse Secure instances. FBI renews warnings about unpatched Fortinet appliances. Healthcare organizations still work to recover from ransomware. Rick Howard speaks with author Andy Greenberg on his book Sandworm. Ben Yelin weighs in on questions Senator Wyden has for the Pentagon. And a look at the criminal ransomware market, including the consultants who serve the extortionists. For links to all of today's stories check out our CyberWire daily news brief: https://www.thecyberwire.com/newsletters/daily-briefing/10/103

In March 2021, a year after the official beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the fully Democratic Party controlled Congress sent President Joe Biden their version of a COVID relief bill to sign, a bill that was rejected by the entire Republican Party. In this episode, examine the new law in detail to learn how it could help you and to judge whether this new law was something you would have liked your representatives in Congress to support. Please Support Congressional Dish – Quick Links Click here to contribute monthly or a lump sum via PayPal Click here to support Congressional Dish via Patreon (donations per episode) Send Zelle payments to: Donation@congressionaldish.com Send Venmo payments to: @Jennifer-Briney Send Cash App payments to: $CongressionalDish or Donation@congressionaldish.com Use your bank’s online bill pay function to mail contributions to: 5753 Hwy 85 North, Number 4576, Crestview, FL 32536 Please make checks payable to Congressional Dish Thank you for supporting truly independent media! Recommended Episodes CD213: CARES Act - The Trillions for COVID-19 Law CD161: Veterans Choice Program American Rescue Plan Outline House vote 1 House vote 2 Senate vote Text The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 TITLE I - COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE, NUTRITION, AND FORESTRY Subtitle A - Agriculture Sec. 1001: Food Supply Chain and Agriculture Pandemic Response Appropriates $4 billion for food purchases and grants for food suppliers to protect their workers from COVID Sec. 1002: Emergency Rural Development Grants For Rural Health Care Appropriates $500 million for "emergency pilot program" grants to impoverished rural communities to help them distribute vaccines with infrastructure and staffing, give them medical supplies, reimburse them for lost revenue. The program has to be in operation by mid-August 2021. Sec. 1005: Farm Loan Assistance for Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers Provides "such sums as may be necessary" for the Secretary of Agriculture (Tom Vilsack) to give "socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers" payments covering "up to 120% of the outstanding indebtedness" as of January 1, 2021, which will pay off loans they received from the Farm Service Agency or Commodity Credit Corporation and loans guaranteed by the Department of Agriculture. "Socially disadvantaged farmers" are farmers or ranchers who "have been subjected to racial or ethnic prejudice because of their identity as members of a group without regard to their individual qualities." Subtitle B - Nutrition Sec. 1101: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Extends food assistance benefits provided by the Coronabus from June 30, 2021 to September 30, 2021 and appropriates an additional $1.15 billion. Sec. 1103: Additional Funding For Nutrition Assistance Programs Provides $1 billion in food assistance benefits to be split among the territories, which they will have until September 30, 2027 to use. Sec. 1105: Improvements to WIC Benefits Allows, but does not require, the Secretary of Agriculture to increase the amount of WIC benefits by $35 until July 11, 2021, if requested by the states. Appropriates $490 million. Sec. 1108: Pandemic EBT Program The Family's First Coronavirus Response Act said that during 2020 and 2021, if a school is closed for more than 5 consecutive days under a public health emergency designation, families of children who are eligible for free or discounted school lunches will be able to get benefits valued at least as much as the school meals, to be distributed via the food stamp program, with money on EBT cards. This changes the dates so that it's valid "in any school year in which there is a public health emergency declaration" or "in a covered summer period following a school session" which will allow the state to continue the benefits for 90 days so that kids can continue to receive the meal credits during the emergency summers. TITLE II - COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, LABOR, AND PENSIONS Subtitle A - Education Matters Part 1 - Department of Education Sec. 2001: Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund Appropriates over $122.7 billion, which can be used through September 30, 2023, for grants to the states. 90% of the money has to be given to local education agencies, including charter schools. 20% of the money needs to be used to address learning loss, via summer programs and extended school days and school years. The rest of the money can be spent at the local agencies discretion for activities they're already authorized to use Federal tax money for and to fund measures needed to protect students and staff from COVID. Any money not used must be returned to the Secretary of Education after one year. Sec. 2002: Emergency Assistance to Non-Public Schools Appropriates $2.75 billion, which can be used through September 30, 2023, for private schools that "enroll a significant percentage of low-income students and are most impacted by the qualifying emergency." Sec. 2003: Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund Appropriates $39.5 billion, which can be used through September 30, 2023, for colleges and universities. Part 2 - Miscellaneous Sec. 2021: National Endowment for the Arts Appropriates $135 million for the National Endowment for the Arts Sec. 2022: National Endowment for the Humanities Appropriates $135 million for the National Endowment for the Humanities Sec. 2023: Institute of Museum and Library Services Appropriates $200 million for the Institute of Museum and Library Services Subtitle B - Labor Matters Sec. 2101: Funding for Department of Labor Worker Protection Activities Appropriates $200 million, with half of that going to OSHA. Only $5 million is required to be spent on "enforcement activities related to COVID-19 at high risk workplaces" Subtitle C - Human Services and Community Supports Sec. 2201: Child Care and Development Block Grant Program Appropriates almost $15 billion, which has to be used before September 30, 2021, for the Child Care and Development Block Grant Program, which gives money to states for child care for low income families with children under the age of 13. States are authorized to provide child care funding to health care employees, emergency responders, and "other workers deemed essential" regardless of their income levels during the emergency period. Sec. 2202: Child Care Stabilization Appropriates almost $24 billion for states to give to child care providers, regardless of any other federal money they have received. The grant will be determined by the child care provider's operating expenses and can be used to pay for employee salaries, benefits, and recruitment; rent or mortages; PPE and training; and mental health support for children or employees. Subtitle D - Public Health Sec. 2301: Funding for COVID-19 Vaccine Activities at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Appropriates $7.5 billion for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to plan, prepare for, promote, distribute, administer, monitor, and track COVID-19 vaccines. Sec. 2302: Funding for Vaccine Confidence Activities Appropriates $1 billion, that does not expire, for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for activities "to strengthen vaccine confidence in the United States" in order to "improve rates of vaccination throughout the United States" Sec. 2303: Funding for Supply Chain for COVID-19 Vaccines, Therapeutics, and Medical Supplies Appropriates a little over $6 billion, which does not expire, "for necessary expenses with respect to research, development, manufacturing, production, and the purchase of vaccines, therapeutics, and ancillary medical products" to prevent and respond to COVID and "any disease with potential for creating a pandemic." Sec. 2305: Reduced Cost-Sharing Expands subsidies for health insurance provided by the Affordable Care Act to anyone who has been approved for unemployment insurance in 2021, and their subsidy level will be determined as if they didn't make more than 133% above the poverty level, regardless of actual income. This makes them eligible for the most general subsidy levels, which reduces their out-of-pocket limit by two-thirds and the insurance provider must pay 90% of health care costs. Subtitle E - Testing Sec. 2401: Funding for COVID-19 Testing, Contact Tracing, and Mitigation Activities Appropriates $47.8 billion, which does not expire, to "detect, diagnose, trace, and monitor SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 infections". This money must be used to implement a national testing and contract tracing strategy, provide technical assistance to states, "support the development, manufacturing, procurement, distribution, and administration of tests", which includes the supplies needed for those tests, PPE, and "the acquisition, construction, alteration, or renovation of non-federally owned facilities." Sec. 2402: Funding for Sara-COV-2 Genomic Sequencing and Surveillance Appropriates $1.75 billion for genomic sequencing, analytics, and disease surveillance, which will identify mutations and survey their transmission in our communities. This money can be used to "award grants for the construction, alteration, or renovation of facilities to improve genomic sequencing and surveillance capabilities at the State and local level." Sec. 2403: Funding for Global Health Appropriates $750 million to combat COVID "and other emerging infectious disease threats globally" Subtitle F - Public Health Workforce Sec. 2501: Funding for Public Health Workplace Appropriates $7.66 billion, which does not expire, to fund the creation and expansion of local public health workforces. The money will be granted to states who will then fund the wages and benefits for individuals hired to be contract tracers, community health workers, epidemiologists, laboratory personnel, communications and policy experts who are employed by the government or a non-profit, which can be public or private. Subtitle G - Public Health Investments Sec. 2601: Funding for Community Health Centers and Community Care Appropriates $7.6 billion, which does not expire, for grants for community health centers, which can be used for vaccine distribution, testing and contact tracing, to hire health care workers, and for community outreach. This money can be used to reimburse community health centers that they provided for COVID response sine January 31, 2020. Subtitle H - Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Sec. 2701: Funding for Block Grants For Community Mental Health Services Appropriates $1.5 billion, that must be spent by September 30, 2025, for states to give to mental health service providers. Sec. 2702: Funding For Block Grants For Prevention and Treatment of Substance Abuse Appropriates $1.5 billion, that must be spent by September 30, 2025, for states to give to substance abuse treatment providers. Subtitle K - Ratepayer Protection Sec. 2911: Funding for LIHEAP Appropriates $4.5 billion, that expires on September 30, 2022, for payment for energy expenses of low income families. Subtitle L - Assistance for Older Americans, Grandfamilies, and Kinship Families Sec. 2921: Supporting Older Americans and Their Families Appropriates over $1.4 billion for COVID related expenses of senior citizens. TITLE III - COMMITTEE ON BANKING, HOUSING, AND URBAN AFFAIRS Subtitle A - Defense Production Act of 1950 Sec. 3101: COVID-19 Emergency Medical Supplies Enhancement Appropriates $10 billion, available until September 30, 2025, to use the Defense Production Act for "the purchase, production (including the construction, repair, and retrofitting of government-owned or private facilities as necessary)" for distributing medical supplies and equipment to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Starting on September 30, 2022, the money left over can be used for any activity "necessary to meet critical public health needs of the United States, as determined by the President. Subtitle B - Housing Provisions Sec. 3201: Emergency Rental Assistance Appropriates over $21.5 billion (on top of the $25 billion provided by the Coronabus), available until September 30, 2027, for grants to states that will be used to pay rent, utilities and "other expenses related to housing incurred due, directly or indirectly," to COVID for up to 18 months. People who qualify for unemployment benefits, had their income reduced, are low income, or can demonstrate that they are at risk of homelessness. The payments will be made directly to the landlord until the landlord does not agree to accept the payment, in which case the household can receive the money. All eligible grantees (states and territories) must be given at least 40% of their payments by May 11 States and territories can use up to 15% of the money for administration Unused money will begin to be returned and redistributed starting on March 31, 2022 Sec. 3202: Emergency Housing Vouchers Appropriates $5 billion, available until September 30, 2030, for emergency housing vouchers (Section 8) to people who are homeless, at risk of homelessness, or escaping a domestic violence or human trafficking situation. Prohibits families from getting another voucher after their voucher expires starting on September 30, 2023. Sec. 3205: Homelessness Assistance and Supportive Services Program Appropriates $5 billion, available until September 30, 2025, for "tenant-based rental assistance", development of affordable housing, housing counseling, and individual shelters than may be converted to permanent housing. Eligible people include people who are homeless, at risk of homelessness, escaping a domestic violence or human trafficking situation, or veterans and their families if the veteran meets one of the other criteria. These services can be contracted out and the government "shall" enter into contracts "that cover the actual total program costs and administrative overhead" Sec. 3206: Homeowner Assistance Fund Appropriates over $9.9 billion, available until September 30, 2025, for a new Homeowner Assistance Fund. The fund will make payments "for the purpose of preventing homeowner mortgage delinquencies, defaults, foreclosures, loss of utilities... of homeowners experiencing financial hardship after January 21, 2020." Assistance will include payments of mortgages, payments to take a loan out of forbearance, principal reduction, facilitating interest rate reductions, payments for utilities and internet service, insurance, and homeowner association fees. 60% of the money given to states has to be used to help homeowners at or below the median income level for their household size or the median income level for the United States, whichever is greater. The rest of the money has to go to "socially disadvantaged individuals". The states must receive their payments by April 25. If a state does not request payments by that date, that state will become ineligible for payments and the money will be divided among the other states. Subtitle C - Small Business (SSBCI) Sec. 3301: State Small Business Credit Initiative Appropriates $10 billion to bring back a program last used after the 2008 global recession to support small businesses recovering from the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. $1.5 billion must be spent on businesses owned and controlled by "socially and economically disadvantaged individuals" This includes privately owned businesses owned 50% or more by "socially and economically disadvantaged individuals" Publicly owned businesses with 51% or more of the stock owned by "socially and economically disadvantaged individuals" Institutions where a majority of the board, account holders and the community are "socially and economically disadvantaged individuals". "Socially and economically disadvantaged individuals" are two different legal categories, but the "economically" disadvantaged group comes from the "socially" disadvantaged group. "Socially disadvantaged individuals" are those who have been subjected to racial or ethnic prejudice or cultural bias because of their identity as a member of a group without regard to their individual qualities. $500 million must be spent on businesses with fewer than 10 employees, which "may" include independent contractors and sole proprietors. Subtitle D - Public Transportation Sec. 3401: Federal Transit Administration Grants Appropriates almost $30.4 billion, available until September 30, 2024, for... Over $26 billion: Urbanized area formula grants For capital projects, planning, job access and reverse commute projects and operating costs for public transportation facilities and equipment in cities with fewer than 200,000 people. Over $1.6 billion: Fixed guideway capital investment grants, For rail, ferry, and bus public transportation systems that increase the capacity of the route by at least 10%. Over $417 million: Formula grants for rural areas. For planning for rural areas, public transportation capital costs, public transportation facilities and equipment, joe access and reverse commute projects, and private providers of public transportation services. The grants cover 80% of the net project cost. $50 million: Grants for enhancing the mobility of seniors, "For public transportation projects designed, and carried out to meet the special needs of seniors and individuals with disabilities when public transportation is insufficient, inappropriate, or unavailable." The money is allowed to be used for operating expenses beginning on January 20, 2020, including payroll, operating costs due to lost revenue, purchase of PPE, and the administrative leave of personnel due to service restrictions. Increases the government's share of the costs from 80% to 100%. Prohibits money paying for route planning to be used to privatize a public transportation service. TITLE IV - COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS Sec. 4001: Emergency Federal Employee Leave Fund Appropriates $570 million, available through September 30, 2022, for up to 600 hours of paid leave for full time employees, capped at $2,800 for each bi-weekly paycheck, for employees that have to quarantine, who have COVID, is caring for a family member with COVID, or is getting vaccinated or is sick from getting the vaccination. Eligible employees include executive branch employees, USPS employees, and working people in the DC court system. Eligibility ends on September 30, 2021. Sec. 4005: Federal Emergency Management Agency Appropriation Appropriates $50 billion, available until September 30, 2025 for FEMA for "major disaster declarations" Sec. 4006: Funeral Assistance For the COVID emergency declared on March 13, 2020 "and for any subsequent major disaster declarations that supercedes such emergency declaration", FEMA funds "shall" be paid for 100% of disaster-related funeral expenses. Sec. 4007: Emergency Food and Shelter Program Funding Appropriates $400 million, available until September 30, 2025 for FEMA's emergency food and sh TITLE V - COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP Sec. 5001: Modifications to Paycheck Protection Program Adds non-profit organizations with fewer then 500 employees per location to the eligibility list for forgivable PPP loans. They can be eligible if they receive up to 15% of their money from lobbying activities and that amount was less than $1 million during the tax year that ended prior to February 15, 2020. Adds "internet only periodical publishers" who are "assigned a North American Industry Classification System code of 519130" to be eligible for forgivable PPP loans if they have fewer than 500 employees per physical location. Appropriates an additional $7.25 billion to the PPP program Sec. 5002: Targeted EIDL Advance Appropriates $15 billion, which does not expire, for the Small Business Administration to make loans to businesses with fewer than 300 employees in low income communities. Sec. 5003: Support for Restaurants Appropriates $28.6 billion for restaurants, food stands, food trucks, caterers, bars, tasting rooms, including locations inside of airports. Does not include chains that had more than 20 locations on March 13, 2020, or publicly traded companies. $5 billion of that is reserved for businesses that made less than $500,000 in 2019. The maximum amount of each grant is $10 million, and no more than $5 million per physical location. The amount up to those caps of the grants is the amount of the business's pandemic related revenue loss. Valid for expenses from February 15, 2020 through at least December 31, 2021. The Administrator of the Small Business Administration can extend that until no later than March 11, 2023. Sec. 5005: Shuttered Venue Operators Appropriates an additional $1.25 billion, that doesn't expire, to the Coronabus grant program for live performance venues. Reduces the grant amounts by any amount of PPP money that was received on or after December 27, 2020. TITLE VII - COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION Subtitle A - Transportation and Infrastructure Sec. 7101: Grants to the National Railroad Passenger Corporation Appropriates almost $1 billion to Amtrak's Northeast Corridor and $730 million to Amtrak's national network, available until September 30, 2024 for coronavirus related expenses. Sec. 7102: Relief for Airports Appropriates $8 billion, available until September 30, 2024 for airports. No more than $800 million can be used to pay the rent and required minimum payments of airport concessions operators. To qualify for the funding, airports have to retain 90% of the number of employees they had on March 27, 2020 until September 30, 2021, unless granted a waiver due to environmental hardship. Subtitle B - Aviation Manufacturing Jobs Protection Sec. 7202: Payroll Support Program Appropriates $3 billion, available until September 30, 2023 for a new program that pays airplane manufacturers for some payroll expenses if they have "significant operations in, and a majority of its employees" in the United States, if they have laid off at least 10% of their workforce or experienced a 15% or more loss of revenue. Businesses that got money from the CARES Act or PPP program are ineligible. Subtitle C - Airlines Sec. 7301: Air Transportation Payroll Support Program Extension Appropriates $14 billion for airlines and $1 billion for contractors conditioned on their agreement not to furlough anyone or reduce pay for workers before September 30, 2021, not buy back their own stock or pay out dividends before September 30, 2022, and limit executive pay. Subtitle D - Consumer Protection and Commerce Oversight Sec. 7402: Funding for E-Rate Support for Emergency Educational Connections and Devices Appropriates over $7.1 billion, available through September 30, 2030 to reimburse elementary and high schools and libraries for new telecommunications equipment and services including wi-fi hotspots, modems, routers, and connection devices. TITLE VIII - COMMITTEE ON VETERANS' AFFAIRS Sec. 8002: Funding Availability for Medical Care and Health Needs Appropriates $14 billion in additional funding, available until September 30, 2023 for the "Veterans Community Care program" Sec. 8007: Prohibition on Copayments and Cost Sharing for Veterans During Emergency Relation to COVID-19 Prohibits the Secretary of Veterans Affairs from charging any co-pay or cost sharing for health care received by a veteran, and any co-pays and cost sharing already charged must be reimbursed, for the period between April 6, 2020 and September 30, 2021. Appropriates an additional $1 billion, available until spent. TITLE IX - COMMITTEE ON FINANCE Subtitle A - Crisis Support for Unemployed Workers Part 1 - Extension of CARES Act Unemployment Provisions Sec. 9011: Extension of Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Extends unemployment benefits through September 6, 2021 and extends the total number of eligible weeks from 50 to 79. Part 3 - Department of Labor Funding for Timely, Accurate, and Equitable Payment Sec. 9032: Funding for Fraud Prevention, Equitable Access, and Timely Payment to Eligible Workers Appropriates an additional $2 billion, available until fully spent, to the Secretary of Labor to detect and prevent fraud and ensure the timely payment of unemployment benefits. Part 4 - Other Provisions Sec. 9042: Suspension of Tax on Portion of Unemployment Compensation For taxpayers whose gross income for "any taxable year beginning in 2020" is less than $150,000 and whose unemployment payments were less than $10,200, that income will not be taxable. Subtitle F - Preserving Health Benefits for Workers Sec. 9501: Preserving Health Benefits for Workers People who lose their employer paid health insurance due to being laid off or having their hours reduced can elect to have COBRA (a continuation of their health insurance) paid for by the government, which will provide tax credits to the employer who will pay the premiums. This applies between April 1, 2021 through September 30, 2021. Subtitle G - Promoting Economic Security Part 1 - 2021 Recovery Rebates to Individuals Sec. 9601: 2021 Recovery Rebates to Individuals Provides $1,400 per person stimulus checks to people making less than $75,000 per year, with a phase out up to $100,000 per year. No checks are allowed to be issued after December 31, 2021. They check amounts will be determined based on either 2019 or 2020 tax filings, whatever the government has on file. Appropriates over $1.4 billion. Part 2 - Child Tax Credit Sec. 9611: Child Tax Credit Improvements for 2021 For 2021, for taxpayers living in the United States will get a $3,000 payment for each child ages 6-18 and $3,600 for each child under the age of 6. The payments will be reduced for individuals who make more than $75,000 and couples who make more than $150,000. Payments will be made between July 1, 2021 and December 31, 2021. Part 3 - Earned Income Tax Credit Sec. 9621: Strengthening the Earned Income Tax Credit for Individuals with No Qualifying Children Doubles the refundable Earned Income Tax Credit for qualified taxpayers for 2021 who don't have children, increasing the maximum credit from $538 to $1,500. To qualify, you have to live in the United States at least half the year and have investment income below $10,000. People who make more than $21,430 as a single person or $27,830 jointly are not eligible. Part 4 - Dependent Care Assistance Sec. 9631: Refundability and Enhancement of Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit For 2021, eligible taxpayers can get up to 50% of up to $8,000 in childcare costs (capped at $16,000 for multiple children under the age of 12) reimbursed via a refundable tax credit. The credit phases out for families with income higher than $400,000 per year. Part 5 - Credits for Paid Sick and Family Leave Sec. 9641: Payroll Credits Provides a 100% refundable tax credit for employers that provide paid sick leave, capped at $511 and 10 days per quarter. Provides a 100% refundable tax credit for employers who provide family leave, capped at $200 per day and $12,000 total. Sec. 9642: Credit for Sick Leave For Certain Self-Employed Individuals Allows self employed individuals to receive a tax credit for sick day related to COVID-19 from April 1, 2021 through September 30, 2021, including getting tested, quarantining, illness, and getting the vaccine. The number of days is capped at 10 and its capped at $200 per day. Sec. 9643: Credit For Family Leave For Certain Self-Employed Individuals Allows self employed individuals to receive a refundable tax credit for family leave for COVID-19 testing, illness, or vaccines. It's capped at 60 days and $200 per day. Part 6 - Employee Retention Credit Sec. 9651: Extension of Employee Retention Credit Provides employers who had to partially or fully close during 2021 with a refundable tax credit up to 70% of the wages they pay to their employees capped at $10,000 per employee per quarter. Part 7 - Premium Tax Credit Sec. 9661: Improving Affordability by Expanding Premium Assistance for Consumers Increases the amount of money the government will pay towards the health insurance premium of low income individuals. People with incomes at or below 150% of the poverty level ($19,320 for individuals) can get coverage with no monthly premiums. Lifts the cap on the income level of individuals eligible for subsides, so now everyone is eligible and no one will pay more than 8.5% of their income towards health insurance premiums. This is only applicable for 2021 and 2022. Part 8 - Miscellaneous Provisions Sec. 9671: Repeal of Election to Allocate Interest, Etc. on Worldwide Basis Repeals a tax benefit for corporations that would have become effective in 2021. Sec. 9672: Tax Treatment of Targeted EIDL Advances COVID relief money provided via the Small Business Administration's program for restaurants will not count as gross income for tax purposes. Sec. 9673: Tax Treatment of Restaurant Revitalization Grants COVID relief money provided via the Small Business Administration's program for small businesses, nonprofits, and venues will not count as gross income for tax purposes. Sec. 9675: Modification of Treatment of Student Loan Forgiveness Student loan forgiveness amounts will not be included in gross income from 2021 through 2025. Subtitle H - Pensions Subtitle I - Child Care for Workers Sec. 9801: Child Care Assistance Appropriates over $3.5 billion for grants to states and territories for child care assistance. Subtitle J - Medicaid Sec. 9811: Mandatory Coverage of COVID-19 Vaccines and Administration and Treatment Under Medicaid From March 11, 2021 until one year after the COVID emergency is declared over, Medicaid must pay for COVID testing, treatment, and vaccines free of out of pocket charges. Subtitle K - Children's Health Insurance Program Sec. 9821: Mandatory Coverage of COVID-19 Vaccines and Administration and Treatment Under CHIP From March 11, 2021 until the first day of the quarter after the one year anniversary of the COVID emergency being declared over, the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) must cover COVID testing, treatment, and vaccines with no cost sharing requirements. The Federal government will pay 100% of the costs to the states. Subtitle M - Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds Sec. 9901: Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds Appropriates $219.8 billion, available through the end of 2024, for states, territories, and tribal governments to "mitigate the fiscal effects stemming from the public health emergency with respect to the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)". The money can be spent on "assistance to households, small businesses, and nonprofits, or aid to impacted industries such as tourism, travel, and hospitality" and "premium pay (up to $13/hour, capped at $25,000) to eligible workers... performing such essential work" and "for the provision of government services to the extent of the reduction of revenue... due to the COVID-19 public health emergency" and "to make necessary investments in water, sewer, or broadband infrastructure." The money can NOT be used to offset a reduction in revenue caused by a tax cut or to deposit into pension funds. Appropriates over $130 billion, available through the end of 2024 for metropolitan cities ($45.5 billion), nonentitlement units of local government ($19.5 billin), and counties ($65 billion) to "mitigate the fiscal effects stemming from the public health emergency with respect to the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)" for the same purposes with the same conditions placed upon the states (see above). Appropriates $10 billion, available until fully spent, for states, territories, and tribal governments to "carry out critical capital projects directly enabling work, education, and health monitoring, including remote options." Each state will get at least $100 million. Appropriates $2 billion, available until September 30, 2023, for counties and tribal governments for "any governmental purpose other than a lobbying activity." Subtitle N - Other Provisions Sec. 9911: Funding For Providers Relating to COVID-19 Appropriates $8.5 billion, available until fully spent, for health care providers for "health care related expenses and lost revenues that are attributable to COVID-19. Health care providers must apply and can't double dip for the same expenses that have already been reimbursed or are supposed to be reimbursed some other way (for example, via insurance.) The money can be used for expenses derived from new construction of temporary structures, leasing property, purchasing medical supplies, hiring new workers and their training, and others. TITLE X - COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS Sec. 10003: Global Response Appropriates over $8.6 billion, available until September 30, 2022, for international health programs "to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus". $3.75 billion will go to the State Department for "the prevention, treatment, and control of HIV/AIDS" in order to mitigate the impact on these programs from impacts of the coronavirus and support recovery from them. The vast majority of this money will be for "a United States contribution to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria" $3.09 billion will go to USAID for COVID-19 relief that "shall include support for international disaster relief, rehabilitation, and reconstruction, for health activities, and to meet emergency food security needs." $930 million will be for "activities to address economic and stabilization requirements resulting from" coronavirus. $905 million will go to USAID and "shall include a contribution to a multilateral vaccine development partnership to support epidemic preparedness." Sec. 10004: Humanitarian Response Appropriates $500 million, available until September 30, 2022, to carry out the Migration and Refugee Assistance Act, but the money can't be used to resettle refugees in the United States. Sec. 10005: Multilateral Assistance Appropriates $580 billion, available until September 30, 2022, which "shall include support for the priorities and objectives of the United Nations Global Humanitarian Response Plan to COVID-19 through voluntary contributions to international organization and programs administered by such organizations." TITLE XI - COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS Sec. 11001: Indian Health Service Appropriates over $6 billion for the Indian Health Service for COVID-19 related expenses. Sec. 11002: Bureau of Indian Affairs Appropriates $900 million for the Bureau of Indian Affairs for tribal housing improvements, welfare services and water deliveries. Sec. 11003: Housing Assistance and Supportive Services Programs for Native Americans Appropriates $750 million for housing assistance for native American communities. Sec. 11005: Bureau of Indian Education Appropriates $850 million for the Bureau of Indian Education, available until fully spent. Articles/Documents Article: Monthly Child Tax Credit Payments Start July 15th. Here's What You Need to Know, By Christine Hernandez, winnie, May 21, 2021 Article: Applying for rental assistance isn't easy. Here's what you need to know, By Annie Nova, CNBC, May 20, 2021 Article: Facing Hurricane and Wildfire Seasons, FEMA Is Already Worn Out, By Christopher Flavelle and Zolan Kanno-Youngs, New York Times, May 20, 2021 Article: As GOP-run states slash jobless aid, the Biden administration finds it has few options, By Tony Romm and Eli Rosenberg, The Washington Post, May 20, 2021 Article: FEMA Launches Program to Compensate Funeral Expenses During Pandemic, By Stephanie Steele, NewsRadio 610 Kona, May 18, 2021 Article: Judge Allows National Eviction Moratorium To Remain In Force While Feds Appeal Ruling Tossing It, By Nicholas Reimann, Forbes, May 18, 2021 Article: How to get $9,000 in federal assistance for COVID-related funeral expenses, By James T. Mulder, AL, May 12, 2021 Article: Struggling Renters Need More Federal Aid, By Alieza Durana and Carl Gershenson, The American Prospect, May 12, 2021 Article: Lockheed-Backed Reps Lobby Against F-35 Spending Cuts, By David Moore, Sludge, Brick House, May 12, 2021 Article: Loans Online – Black farmer loan forgiveness challenged, By Andrew Solender, Forbes, May 11, 2021 Article: Senate Republicans Move To End $300 Unemployment Checks After Bad Jobs Report, By Andrew Solender, Forbes, May 11, 2021 Article: Republicans Are Still Waging War on Workers, By Paul Krugman, The New York Times, May 10, 2021 Article: U.S. Chamber of Commerce blames weak jobs report on enhanced unemployment benefit, kicks off lobbying effort, By Thomas Franck and Brian Schwartz, CNBC, May 7, 2021 Article: National Eviction Moratorium Thrown Out by Federal Judge, By Andrew Ackerman and Brent Kendall, The Wall Street Journal, May 5, 2021 Article: Who is eligible for Earned Income Tax Credit for childless workers?, By Greg Heilman, as, May 3, 2021 Article: Sid Miller sues over farm aid program, saying it discriminates against whites, By Chuck Lindell, Austin American-Statesman, April 27, 2021 Article: Texas Ag Commissioner Sid Miller sues, claims American Rescue Plan discriminates against white farmers, By Drew Knight, KVUE, April 27, 2021 Article: WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE PAYCHECK PROTECTION PROGRAM BEFORE YOUR CHANCE TO GET IT RUNS OUT, By Jamie Smith Hopkins, The Center for Public Integrity, April 25, 2021 Article: USDA Details Plan for Debt Payments to Socially Disadvantaged Farmers, By Chris Clayton, Progressive Farmer, DTN, Ag Policy Blog, April 15, 2021 Article: HOMEOWNER ASSISTANCE FUND, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY, April 14, 2021 Article: New $3,000 child tax credit to start payments in July, IRS says, By Carmen Reinicke, CNBC, April 13, 2021 Document: FAQS ABOUT COBRA PREMIUM ASSISTANCE UNDER THE AMERICAN RESCUE PLAN ACT OF 2021, Department of Labor, April 7, 2021 Article: Exclusive: Nearly 7 million uninsured Americans qualify for free health insurance, By Dylan Scott, Vox, April 1, 2021 Article: This Fast Food Giant Bragged About Killing $15 Minimum Wage, By David Sirota, Andrew Perez and Walker Bragman, Newsweek, March 27, 2021 Document: Pension Provisions in the American Rescue Plan of 2021, U.S. Congressional Research Service, March 18, 2021 Article: Congress Repeals Worldwide Interest Expense Allocation, By Amanda Pedvin Varma, Lauren Azebu, Steptoe, March 17, 2021 Article: House Democrat Jared Golden Defends Voting Against 'Wasteful' $1.9T Relief Bill, By Benjamin Fearnow, Newsweek, February 27, 2021 Article: FEMA Supporting Vaccination Centers Nationwide, FEMA, February 26, 2021 Article: Veterans Community Care Program: Improvements Needed to Help Ensure Timely Access to Care, U.S. Government Accountability Office, September 28, 2020 Article: How a 1960s communist exposed the funeral industry’s greed, By Matt Reimann, Timeline, July 11, 2016 Article: The F-35 Is About to Get A Lot Cheaper. Sort Of., By Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, July 11, 2016 Additional Resources Poll @JenBriney Twitter Allocation for States Allocation for Metropolitan Cities Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers, U.S. Department of Agriculture Child Care & Development Block Grant (CCDBG), First Five Years Fund The American Rescue Plan, The White House Federal Poverty Level (FPL), Healthcare.gov New, lower costs on health insurance! Enroll now, Healthcare.gov US Chamber of Commerce, OpenSecrets.org Lobbyist Profile: Robert L Livingston, OpenSecrets.org Lobbyist Profile: Michael Mukasey, OpenSecrets.org Client Profile: US Chamber of Commerce, OpenSecrets.org Industry Profile: Food & Beverage, OpenSecrets.org Sound Clip Sources McConnell: I hope EVERY REPUBLICAN votes against American Rescue Plan, Forbes, YouTube, March 3, 2021 Rep. Kurt Schrader explains his vote against $1.9T coronavirus relief bill, KGW, March 1, 2021 "A Payoff For Pelosi": Kevin McCarthy Slams Spending Items In $1.9 Trillion American Rescue Plan, Forbes, YouTube, May 1, 2021 Cover Art Design by Only Child Imaginations Music Presented in This Episode Intro & Exit: Tired of Being Lied To by David Ippolito (found on Music Alley by mevio)