Podcasts about Virtuoso

In this episode, Joe Consolo, Industry Principal at Yardi, joins us to discuss how AI agents are transforming the world of property management. We'll dive into the capabilities of Yardi's AI platform, Virtuoso, and explore how it's helping operators work smarter and faster. To learn more about Yardi, visit yardi.com. Find knowledge for the dynamic world of real estate management at irem.org.

Think New York or Paris has the world's priciest hotels? Think again — Boston just took the crown

Para lograr crecer en su vida cristiana, parallegar a ser un cristiano maduro y espiritual, debe aprender a ser un creyente Virtuoso

El boom de la gastronomía latinoamericana es innegable. Chefs latinoamericanos están tocando el cielo con una multiplicación de estrellas Michelin y los rankings mundiales premian la creatividad de la región. En la edición 2025 de los 50s best, los 50 mejores, diez restaurantes latinoamericanos se destacan.  La gastronomía peruana y mexicana siguen dominando, pero otra cocina también compite en las grandes ligas: la ecuatoriana. Ecuador exporta menús de primera hasta París, capital del buen comer por excelencia. Y precisamente de buen comer vamos a hablar con el chef ecuatoriano Raúl Meza que abrió hace poco "Le Vertueux", el Virtuoso en español. El amor por la cocina de Raúl Meza no empieza en los fogones, nace más bien con la televisión: "Todo comenzó a los 12 o 13 años cuando recién llegamos a París, a Francia con los primeros concursos televisivos de cocina como Masterchef o Topchef". Si en casa la comida era simple y el menú poco o nada ecuatoriano, al chef Meza le gusta recordar la "ratatouille" de su madre. Este plato muy simple preparado con berenjenas, calabazas y tomate que requiere ingredientes muy frescos y algo de arte. "Es un pilar de la gastronomía francesa", dice. La llegada a Francia tan jovencito fue un choque al paladar que lo llevó a interesarse por la cocina de su nuevo país, estudiar gastronomía y aprende con los mejores. Se formó con Michel Rostang - dos estrellas Michelin- trabajó también con Alain Senderens- tres estrellas Michelin. Desde abajo como aprendiz y luego hacia arriba, ocupa todos los puestos que se deben y pueden ocupar en una brigada durante el aprendizaje. De esos años codeádose con chefs reconocidos le queda el gusto por la "precisión", amistades duraderas y la curiosidad por la mezcla de influencias sin olvidar "ser constante y amar lo que haces, porque si no lo amas realmente con el trabajo es muy duro". Un viaje hacia las raíces En ese entonces, los ingredientes ecuatorianos no forman parte de su repertorio. Pero en las cocinas donde trabaja le piden cada vez más que proponga platos sudamericanos, "pero me eran poco conocidos". Un viaje por su natal Ecuador en 2015 y luego un periplo por los países vecinos de tres años le abrirán un mundo de sabores: "Tuve la suerte de estar en la Amazonía, en Galápagos también viajé por toda la Cordillera de los Andes, conociendo la papa, el maíz, las variedades inmensas que hay de papa, las variedades inmensas de maíz. El verde. El plátano. Todo lo que es el pescado, la manera de cocinarlo muy diferente acá, los gustos. Esos sabores que poco a poco fui aprendiendo a lo largo de mis viajes".  Al regresar a París se incorpora en otro restaurante de prestigio, pero la semillita de abrir un restaurante propio ya estaba plantada. En el famoso Georges V observa cómo el chef- casado con una mexicana- incorpora las influencias de esa cocina. De todo ese caminar surge la idea de proponer una experiencia gastronómica en París inspirada de la comida ecuatoriana.  Un boom de cocina latinoamericana en París Le Vertueux abre en marzo del 2025 con foie gras escalfado en cacao de Perú acompañado de su condimento de maracuya o fruta de la pasión, camarón carabinero encocado y gnocchis de banano verde: "Tenemos productos sudamericanos, cacao, café, productos que van a venirse a mezclar con los productos típicos franceses de aquí. La gente que ha probado le ha gustado esa mezcla entre el amargo del café, lo ácido del maracuyá". La apertura de este restaurante se inscribe en un boom de restaurantes gastronómicos y no gastronómicos latinoamericanos en París: "Poco a poco la cocina sudamericana se está haciendo conocer mucho más. Cambia un poquito también de la influencia asiática que había antes aquí en París y ayuda a descubrir sabores, productos, frutos interesantes con gustos mucho más fuertes, mucho más ácidos que a los ecuatorianos y a los franceses les está gustando mucho más." La pregunta que se plantea es si la fusión es una obligación para acercar al público francés a esta gastronomía: "Nosotros hicimos muchos test antes de lanzar los menús, no es necesario utilizar el foie gras. Podemos utilizar la comida un poquito más natural, como hacemos en América Latina. Pero sí, lo que sí hay es que adaptar los gustos, porque muchas veces lo que tuvimos es que los gustos eran demasiado fuertes o no bien acogidos. Entonces poco a poco vamos regulando los sabores, lo ácido más que todo para llegar al paladar francés, que sí está ávido de encontrar,nuevos gustos, pero al mismo tiempo quieren también tener la armonía que conocen en los platos".    #EscalaenParís también está en redes sociales Un programa coordinado por Melissa Barra y Julia Courtois, realizado por Hadrien Toureaud y Guillaume Buffé

El boom de la gastronomía latinoamericana es innegable. Chefs latinoamericanos están tocando el cielo con una multiplicación de estrellas Michelin y los rankings mundiales premian la creatividad de la región. En la edición 2025 de los 50s best, los 50 mejores, diez restaurantes latinoamericanos se destacan.  La gastronomía peruana y mexicana siguen dominando, pero otra cocina también compite en las grandes ligas: la ecuatoriana. Ecuador exporta menús de primera hasta París, capital del buen comer por excelencia. Y precisamente de buen comer vamos a hablar con el chef ecuatoriano Raúl Meza que abrió hace poco "Le Vertueux", el Virtuoso en español. El amor por la cocina de Raúl Meza no empieza en los fogones, nace más bien con la televisión: "Todo comenzó a los 12 o 13 años cuando recién llegamos a París, a Francia con los primeros concursos televisivos de cocina como Masterchef o Topchef". Si en casa la comida era simple y el menú poco o nada ecuatoriano, al chef Meza le gusta recordar la "ratatouille" de su madre. Este plato muy simple preparado con berenjenas, calabazas y tomate que requiere ingredientes muy frescos y algo de arte. "Es un pilar de la gastronomía francesa", dice. La llegada a Francia tan jovencito fue un choque al paladar que lo llevó a interesarse por la cocina de su nuevo país, estudiar gastronomía y aprende con los mejores. Se formó con Michel Rostang - dos estrellas Michelin- trabajó también con Alain Senderens- tres estrellas Michelin. Desde abajo como aprendiz y luego hacia arriba, ocupa todos los puestos que se deben y pueden ocupar en una brigada durante el aprendizaje. De esos años codeádose con chefs reconocidos le queda el gusto por la "precisión", amistades duraderas y la curiosidad por la mezcla de influencias sin olvidar "ser constante y amar lo que haces, porque si no lo amas realmente con el trabajo es muy duro". Un viaje hacia las raíces En ese entonces, los ingredientes ecuatorianos no forman parte de su repertorio. Pero en las cocinas donde trabaja le piden cada vez más que proponga platos sudamericanos, "pero me eran poco conocidos". Un viaje por su natal Ecuador en 2015 y luego un periplo por los países vecinos de tres años le abrirán un mundo de sabores: "Tuve la suerte de estar en la Amazonía, en Galápagos también viajé por toda la Cordillera de los Andes, conociendo la papa, el maíz, las variedades inmensas que hay de papa, las variedades inmensas de maíz. El verde. El plátano. Todo lo que es el pescado, la manera de cocinarlo muy diferente acá, los gustos. Esos sabores que poco a poco fui aprendiendo a lo largo de mis viajes".  Al regresar a París se incorpora en otro restaurante de prestigio, pero la semillita de abrir un restaurante propio ya estaba plantada. En el famoso Georges V observa cómo el chef- casado con una mexicana- incorpora las influencias de esa cocina. De todo ese caminar surge la idea de proponer una experiencia gastronómica en París inspirada de la comida ecuatoriana.  Un boom de cocina latinoamericana en París Le Vertueux abre en marzo del 2025 con foie gras escalfado en cacao de Perú acompañado de su condimento de maracuya o fruta de la pasión, camarón carabinero encocado y gnocchis de banano verde: "Tenemos productos sudamericanos, cacao, café, productos que van a venirse a mezclar con los productos típicos franceses de aquí. La gente que ha probado le ha gustado esa mezcla entre el amargo del café, lo ácido del maracuyá". La apertura de este restaurante se inscribe en un boom de restaurantes gastronómicos y no gastronómicos latinoamericanos en París: "Poco a poco la cocina sudamericana se está haciendo conocer mucho más. Cambia un poquito también de la influencia asiática que había antes aquí en París y ayuda a descubrir sabores, productos, frutos interesantes con gustos mucho más fuertes, mucho más ácidos que a los ecuatorianos y a los franceses les está gustando mucho más." La pregunta que se plantea es si la fusión es una obligación para acercar al público francés a esta gastronomía: "Nosotros hicimos muchos test antes de lanzar los menús, no es necesario utilizar el foie gras. Podemos utilizar la comida un poquito más natural, como hacemos en América Latina. Pero sí, lo que sí hay es que adaptar los gustos, porque muchas veces lo que tuvimos es que los gustos eran demasiado fuertes o no bien acogidos. Entonces poco a poco vamos regulando los sabores, lo ácido más que todo para llegar al paladar francés, que sí está ávido de encontrar,nuevos gustos, pero al mismo tiempo quieren también tener la armonía que conocen en los platos".    #EscalaenParís también está en redes sociales Un programa coordinado por Melissa Barra y Julia Courtois, realizado por Hadrien Toureaud y Guillaume Buffé

New York Giants blow another late lead, this time in overtime to the Detroit Lions. On Monday, interim head coach Mike Kafka fired defensive coordinator Shane Bowen for his role in the team's utter collapse.  Hosts Nick and Weis breakdown the Giants' organizational problems, why optics are increasingly becoming a problem and most importantly, why Joe Schoen cannot continue as general manager if the Giants are serious about winning. 

How can you write science-based fiction without info-dumping your research? How can you use AI tools in a creative way, while still focusing on a human-first approach? Why is adapting to the fast pace of change so difficult and how can we make the most of this time? Jamie Metzl talks about Superconvergence and more. In the intro, How to avoid author scams [Written Word Media]; Spotify vs Audible audiobook strategy [The New Publishing Standard]; Thoughts on Author Nation and why constraints are important in your author life [Self-Publishing with ALLi]; Alchemical History And Beautiful Architecture: Prague with Lisa M Lilly on my Books and Travel Podcast. Today's show is sponsored by Draft2Digital, self-publishing with support, where you can get free formatting, free distribution to multiple stores, and a host of other benefits. Just go to www.draft2digital.com to get started. This show is also supported by my Patrons. Join my Community at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn Jamie Metzl is a technology futurist, professional speaker, entrepreneur, and the author of sci-fi thrillers and futurist nonfiction books, including the revised and updated edition of Superconvergence: How the Genetics, Biotech, and AI Revolutions Will Transform Our Lives, Work, and World. You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below. Show Notes How personal history shaped Jamie's fiction writing Writing science-based fiction without info-dumping The super convergence of three revolutions (genetics, biotech, AI) and why we need to understand them holistically Using fiction to explore the human side of genetic engineering, life extension, and robotics Collaborating with GPT-5 as a named co-author How to be a first-rate human rather than a second-rate machine You can find Jamie at JamieMetzl.com. Transcript of interview with Jamie Metzl Jo: Jamie Metzl is a technology futurist, professional speaker, entrepreneur, and the author of sci-fi thrillers and futurist nonfiction books, including the revised and updated edition of Superconvergence: How the Genetics, Biotech, and AI Revolutions Will Transform Our Lives, Work, and World. So welcome, Jamie. Jamie: Thank you so much, Jo. Very happy to be here with you. Jo: There is so much we could talk about, but let's start with you telling us a bit more about you and how you got into writing. From History PhD to First Novel Jamie: Well, I think like a lot of writers, I didn't know I was a writer. I was just a kid who loved writing. Actually, just last week I was going through a bunch of boxes from my parents' house and I found my autobiography, which I wrote when I was nine years old. So I've been writing my whole life and loving it. It was always something that was very important to me. When I finished my DPhil, my PhD at Oxford, and my dissertation came out, it just got scooped up by Macmillan in like two minutes. And I thought, “God, that was easy.” That got me started thinking about writing books. I wanted to write a novel based on the same historical period – my PhD was in Southeast Asian history – and I wanted to write a historical novel set in the same period as my dissertation, because I felt like the dissertation had missed the human element of the story I was telling, which was related to the Cambodian genocide and its aftermath. So I wrote what became my first novel, and I thought, “Wow, now I'm a writer.” I thought, “All right, I've already published one book. I'm gonna get this other book out into the world.” And then I ran into the brick wall of: it's really hard to be a writer. It's almost easier to write something than to get it published. I had to learn a ton, and it took nine years from when I started writing that first novel, The Depths of the Sea, to when it finally came out. But it was such a positive experience, especially to have something so personal to me as that story. I'd lived in Cambodia for two years, I'd worked on the Thai-Cambodian border, and I'm the child of a Holocaust survivor. So there was a whole lot that was very emotional for me. That set a pattern for the rest of my life as a writer, at least where, in my nonfiction books, I'm thinking about whatever the issues are that are most important to me. Whether it was that historical book, which was my first book, or Hacking Darwin on the future of human genetic engineering, which was my last book, or Superconvergence, which, as you mentioned in the intro, is my current book. But in every one of those stories, the human element is so deep and so profound. You can get at some of that in nonfiction, but I've also loved exploring those issues in deeper ways in my fiction. So in my more recent novels, Genesis Code and Eternal Sonata, I've looked at the human side of the story of genetic engineering and human life extension. And now my agent has just submitted my new novel, Virtuoso, about the intersection of AI, robotics, and classical music. With all of this, who knows what's the real difference between fiction and nonfiction? We're all humans trying to figure things out on many different levels. Shifting from History to Future Tech Jo: I knew that you were a polymath, someone who's interested in so many things, but the music angle with robotics and AI is fascinating. I do just want to ask you, because I was also at Oxford – what college were you at? Jamie: I was in St. Antony's. Jo: I was at Mansfield, so we were in that slightly smaller, less famous college group, if people don't know. Jamie: You know, but we're small but proud. Jo: Exactly. That's fantastic. You mentioned that you were on the historical side of things at the beginning and now you've moved into technology and also science, because this book Superconvergence has a lot of science. So how did you go from history and the past into science and the future? Biology and Seeing the Future Coming Jamie: It's a great question. I'll start at the end and then back up. A few years ago I was speaking at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which is one of the big scientific labs here in the United States. I was a guest of the director and I was speaking to their 300 top scientists. I said to them, “I'm here to speak with you about the future of biology at the invitation of your director, and I'm really excited. But if you hear something wrong, please raise your hand and let me know, because I'm entirely self-taught. The last biology course I took was in 11th grade of high school in Kansas City.” Of course I wouldn't say that if I didn't have a lot of confidence in my process. But in many ways I'm self-taught in the sciences. As you know, Jo, and as all of your listeners know, the foundation of everything is curiosity and then a disciplined process for learning. Even our greatest super-specialists in the world now – whatever their background – the world is changing so fast that if anyone says, “Oh, I have a PhD in physics/chemistry/biology from 30 years ago,” the exact topic they learned 30 years ago is less significant than their process for continuous learning. More specifically, in the 1990s I was working on the National Security Council for President Clinton, which is the president's foreign policy staff. My then boss and now close friend, Richard Clarke – who became famous as the guy who had tragically predicted 9/11 – used to say that the key to efficacy in Washington and in life is to try to solve problems that other people can't see. For me, almost 30 years ago, I felt to my bones that this intersection of what we now call AI and the nascent genetics revolution and the nascent biotechnology revolution was going to have profound implications for humanity. So I just started obsessively educating myself. When I was ready, I started writing obscure national security articles. Those got a decent amount of attention, so I was invited to testify before the United States Congress. I was speaking out a lot, saying, “Hey, this is a really important story. A lot of people are missing it. Here are the things we should be thinking about for the future.” I wasn't getting the kind of traction that I wanted. I mentioned before that my first book had been this dry Oxford PhD dissertation, and that had led to my first novel. So I thought, why don't I try the same approach again – writing novels to tell this story about the genetics, biotech, and what later became known popularly as the AI revolution? That led to my two near-term sci-fi novels, Genesis Code and Eternal Sonata. On my book tours for those novels, when I explained the underlying science to people in my way, as someone who taught myself, I could see in their eyes that they were recognizing not just that something big was happening, but that they could understand it and feel like they were part of that story. That's what led me to write Hacking Darwin, as I mentioned. That book really unlocked a lot of things. I had essentially predicted the CRISPR babies that were born in China before it happened – down to the specific gene I thought would be targeted, which in fact was the case. After that book was published, Dr. Tedros, the Director-General of the World Health Organization, invited me to join the WHO Expert Advisory Committee on Human Genome Editing, which I did. It was a really great experience and got me thinking a lot about the upside of this revolution and the downside. The Birth of Superconvergence Jamie: I get a lot of wonderful invitations to speak, and I have two basic rules for speaking: Never use notes. Never ever. Never stand behind a podium. Never ever. Because of that, when I speak, my talks tend to migrate. I'd be speaking with people about the genetics revolution as it applied to humans, and I'd say, “Well, this is just a little piece of a much bigger story.” The bigger story is that after nearly four billion years of life on Earth, our one species has the increasing ability to engineer novel intelligence and re-engineer life. The big question for us, and frankly for the world, is whether we're going to be able to use that almost godlike superpower wisely. As that idea got bigger and bigger, it became this inevitable force. You write so many books, Jo, that I think it's second nature for you. Every time I finish a book, I think, “Wow, that was really hard. I'm never doing that again.” And then the books creep up on you. They call to you. At some point you say, “All right, now I'm going to do it.” So that was my current book, Superconvergence. Like everything, every journey you take a step, and that step inspires another step and another. That's why writing and living creatively is such a wonderfully exciting thing – there's always more to learn and always great opportunities to push ourselves in new ways. Balancing Deep Research with Good Storytelling Jo: Yeah, absolutely. I love that you've followed your curiosity and then done this disciplined process for learning. I completely understand that. But one of the big issues with people like us who love the research – and having read your Superconvergence, I know how deeply you go into this and how deeply you care that it's correct – is that with fiction, one of the big problems with too much research is the danger of brain-dumping. Readers go to fiction for escapism. They want the interesting side of it, but they want a story first. What are your tips for authors who might feel like, “Where's the line between putting in my research so that it's interesting for readers, but not going too far and turning it into a textbook?” How do you find that balance? Jamie: It's such a great question. I live in New York now, but I used to live in Washington when I was working for the U.S. government, and there were a number of people I served with who later wrote novels. Some of those novels felt like policy memos with a few sex scenes – and that's not what to do. To write something that's informed by science or really by anything, everything needs to be subservient to the story and the characters. The question is: what is the essential piece of information that can convey something that's both important to your story and your character development, and is also an accurate representation of the world as you want it to be? I certainly write novels that are set in the future – although some of them were a future that's now already happened because I wrote them a long time ago. You can make stuff up, but as an author you have to decide what your connection to existing science and existing technology and the existing world is going to be. I come at it from two angles. One: I read a huge number of scientific papers and think, “What does this mean for now, and if you extrapolate into the future, where might that go?” Two: I think about how to condense things. We've all read books where you're humming along because people read fiction for story and emotional connection, and then you hit a bit like: “I sat down in front of the president, and the president said, ‘Tell me what I need to know about the nuclear threat.'” And then it's like: insert memo. That's a deal-killer. It's like all things – how do you have a meaningful relationship with another person? It's not by just telling them your story. Even when you're telling them something about you, you need to be imagining yourself sitting in their shoes, hearing you. These are very different disciplines, fiction and nonfiction. But for the speculative nonfiction I write – “here's where things are now, and here's where the world is heading” – there's a lot of imagination that goes into that too. It feels in many ways like we're living in a sci-fi world because the rate of technological change has been accelerating continuously, certainly for the last 12,000 years since the dawn of agriculture. It's a balance. For me, I feel like I'm a better fiction writer because I write nonfiction, and I'm a better nonfiction writer because I write fiction. When I'm writing nonfiction, I don't want it to be boring either – I want people to feel like there's a story and characters and that they can feel themselves inside that story. Jo: Yeah, definitely. I think having some distance helps as well. If you're really deep into your topics, as you are, you have to leave that manuscript a little bit so you can go back with the eyes of the reader as opposed to your eyes as the expert. Then you can get their experience, which is great. Looking Beyond Author-Focused AI Fears Jo: I want to come to your technical knowledge, because AI is a big thing in the author and creative community, like everywhere else. One of the issues is that creators are focusing on just this tiny part of the impact of AI, and there's a much bigger picture. For example, in 2024, Demis Hassabis from Google DeepMind and his collaborative partner John Jumper won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry with AlphaFold. It feels to me like there's this massive world of what's happening with AI in health, climate, and other areas, and yet we are so focused on a lot of the negative stuff. Maybe you could give us a couple of things about what there is to be excited and optimistic about in terms of AI-powered science? Jamie: Sure. I'm so excited about all of the new opportunities that AI creates. But I also think there's a reason why evolution has preserved this very human feeling of anxiety: because there are real dangers. Anybody who's Pollyanna-ish and says, “Oh, the AI story is inevitably positive,” I'd be distrustful. And anyone who says, “We're absolutely doomed, this is the end of humanity,” I'd also be distrustful. So let me tell you the positives and the negatives, and maybe some thoughts about how we navigate toward the former and away from the latter. AI as the New Electricity Jamie: When people think of AI right now, they're thinking very narrowly about these AI tools and ChatGPT. But we don't think of electricity that way. Nobody says, “I know electricity – electricity is what happens at the power station.” We've internalised the idea that electricity is woven into not just our communication systems or our houses, but into our clothes, our glasses – it's woven into everything and has super-empowered almost everything in our modern lives. That's what AI is. In Superconvergence, the majority of the book is about positive opportunities: In healthcare, moving from generalised healthcare based on population averages to personalised or precision healthcare based on a molecular understanding of each person's individual biology. As we build these massive datasets like the UK Biobank, we can take a next jump toward predictive and preventive healthcare, where we're able to address health issues far earlier in the process, when interventions can be far more benign. I'm really excited about that, not to mention the incredible new kinds of treatments – gene therapies, or pharmaceuticals based on genetics and systems-biology analyses of patients. Then there's agriculture. Over the last hundred years, because of the technologies of the Green Revolution and synthetic fertilisers, we've had an incredible increase in agricultural productivity. That's what's allowed us to quadruple the global population. But if we just continue agriculture as it is, as we get towards ten billion wealthier, more empowered people wanting to eat like we eat, we're going to have to wipe out all the wild spaces on Earth to feed them. These technologies help provide different paths toward increasing agricultural productivity with fewer inputs of land, water, fertiliser, insecticides, and pesticides. That's really positive. I could go on and on about these positives – and I do – but there are very real negatives. I was a member of the WHO Expert Advisory Committee on Human Genome Editing after the first CRISPR babies were very unethically created in China. I'm extremely aware that these same capabilities have potentially incredible upsides and very real downsides. That's the same as every technology in the past, but this is happening so quickly that it's triggering a lot of anxieties. Governance, Responsibility, and Why Everyone Has a Role Jamie: The question now is: how do we optimise the benefits and minimise the harms? The short, unsexy word for that is governance. Governance is not just what governments do; it's what all of us do. That's why I try to write books, both fiction and nonfiction, to bring people into this story. If people “other” this story – if they say, “There's a technology revolution, it has nothing to do with me, I'm going to keep my head down” – I think that's dangerous. The way we're going to handle this as responsibly as possible is if everybody says, “I have some role. Maybe it's small, maybe it's big. The first step is I need to educate myself. Then I need to have conversations with people around me. I need to express my desires, wishes, and thoughts – with political leaders, organisations I'm part of, businesses.” That has to happen at every level. You're in the UK – you know the anti-slavery movement started with a handful of people in Cambridge and grew into a global movement. I really believe in the power of ideas, but ideas don't spread on their own. These are very human networks, and that's why writing, speaking, communicating – probably for every single person listening to this podcast – is so important. Jo: Mm, yeah. Fiction Like AI 2041 and Thinking Through the Issues Jo: Have you read AI 2041 by Kai-Fu Lee and Chen Qiufan? Jamie: No. I heard a bunch of their interviews when the book came out, but I haven't read it. Jo: I think that's another good one because it's fiction – a whole load of short stories. It came out a few years ago now, but the issues they cover in the stories, about different people in different countries – I remember one about deepfakes – make you think more about the topics and help you figure out where you stand. I think that's the issue right now: it's so complex, there are so many things. I'm generally positive about AI, but of course I don't want autonomous drone weapons, you know? The Messy Reality of “Bad” Technologies Jamie: Can I ask you about that? Because this is why it's so complicated. Like you, I think nobody wants autonomous killer drones anywhere in the world. But if you right now were the defence minister of Ukraine, and your children are being kidnapped, your country is being destroyed, you're fighting for your survival, you're getting attacked every night – and you're getting attacked by the Russians, who are investing more and more in autonomous killer robots – you kind of have two choices. You can say, “I'm going to surrender,” or, “I'm going to use what technology I have available to defend myself, and hopefully fight to either victory or some kind of stand-off.” That's what our societies did with nuclear weapons. Maybe not every American recognises that Churchill gave Britain's nuclear secrets to America as a way of greasing the wheels of the Anglo-American alliance during the Second World War – but that was our programme: we couldn't afford to lose that war, and we couldn't afford to let the Nazis get nuclear weapons before we did. So there's the abstract feeling of, “I'm against all war in the abstract. I'm against autonomous killer robots in the abstract.” But if I were the defence minister of Ukraine, I would say, “What will it take for us to build the weapons we can use to defend ourselves?” That's why all this stuff gets so complicated. And frankly, it's why the relationship between fiction and nonfiction is so important. If every novel had a situation where every character said, “Oh, I know exactly the right answer,” and then they just did the right answer and it was obviously right, it wouldn't make for great fiction. We're dealing with really complex humans. We have conflicting impulses. We're not perfect. Maybe there are no perfect answers – but how do we strive toward better rather than worse? That's the question. Jo: Absolutely. I don't want to get too political on things. How AI Is Changing the Writing Life Jo: Let's come back to authors. In terms of the creative process, the writing process, the research process, and the business of being an author – what are some of the ways that you already use AI tools, and some of the ways, given your futurist brain, that you think things are going to change for us? Jamie: Great question. I'll start with a little middle piece. I found you, Jo, through GPT-5. I asked ChatGPT, “I'm coming out with this book and I want to connect with podcasters who are a little different from the ones I've done in the past. I've been a guest on Joe Rogan twice and some of the bigger podcasts. Make me a list of really interesting people I can have great conversations with.” That's how I found you. So this is one reward of that process. Let me say that in the last year I've worked on three books, and I'll explain how my relationship with AI has changed over those books. Cleaning Up Citations (and Getting Burned) Jamie: First is the highly revised paperback edition of Superconvergence. When the hardback came out, I had – I don't normally work with research assistants because I like to dig into everything myself – but the one thing I do use a research assistant for is that I can't be bothered, when I'm writing something, to do the full Chicago-style footnote if I'm already referencing an academic paper. So I'd just put the URL as the footnote and then hire a research assistant and say, “Go to this URL and change it into a Chicago-style citation. That's it.” Unfortunately, my research assistant on the hardback used early-days ChatGPT for that work. He did the whole thing, came back, everything looked perfect. I said, “Wow, amazing job.” It was only later, as I was going through them, that I realised something like 50% of them were invented footnotes. It was very painful to go back and fix, and it took ten times more time. With the paperback edition, I didn't use AI that much, but I did say things like, “Here's all the information – generate a Chicago-style citation.” That was better. I noticed there were a few things where I stopped using the thesaurus function on Microsoft Word because I'd just put the whole paragraph into the AI and say, “Give me ten other options for this one word,” and it would be like a contextual thesaurus. That was pretty good. Talking to a Robot Pianist Character Jamie: Then, for my new novel Virtuoso, I was writing a character who is a futurist robot that plays the piano very beautifully – not just humanly, but almost finding new things in the music we've written and composing music that resonates with us. I described the actions of that robot in the novel, but I didn't describe the inner workings of the robot's mind. In thinking about that character, I realised I was the first science-fiction writer in history who could interrogate a machine about what it was “thinking” in a particular context. I had the most beautiful conversations with ChatGPT, where I would give scenarios and ask, “What are you thinking? What are you feeling in this context?” It was all background for that character, but it was truly profound. Co-Authoring The AI Ten Commandments with GPT-5 Jamie: Third, I have another book coming out in May in the United States. I gave a talk this summer at the Chautauqua Institution in upstate New York about AI and spirituality. I talked about the history of our human relationship with our technology, about how all our religious and spiritual traditions have deep technological underpinnings – certainly our Abrahamic religions are deeply connected to farming, and Protestantism to the printing press. Then I had a section about the role of AI in generating moral codes that would resonate with humans. Everybody went nuts for this talk, and I thought, “I think I'm going to write a book.” I decided to write it differently, with GPT-5 as my named co-author. The first thing I did was outline the entire book based on the talk, which I'd already spent a huge amount of time thinking about and organising. Then I did a full outline of the arguments and structures. Then I trained GPT-5 on my writing style. The way I did it – which I fully describe in the introduction to the book – was that I'd handle all the framing: the full introduction, the argument, the structure. But if there was a section where, for a few paragraphs, I was summarising a huge field of data, even something I knew well, I'd give GPT-5 the intro sentence and say, “In my writing style, prepare four paragraphs on this.” For example, I might write: “AI has the potential to see us humans like we humans see ant colonies.” Then I'd say, “Give me four paragraphs on the relationship between the individual and the collective in ant colonies.” I could have written those four paragraphs myself, but it would've taken a month to read the life's work of E.O. Wilson and then write them. GPT-5 wrote them in seconds or minutes, in its thinking mode. I'd then say, “It's not quite right – change this, change that,” and we'd go back and forth three or four times. Then I'd edit the whole thing and put it into the text. So this book that I could have written on my own in a year, I wrote a first draft of with GPT-5 as my named co-author in two days. The whole project will take about six months from start to finish, and I'm having massive human editing – multiple edits from me, plus a professional editor. It's not a magic AI button. But I feel strongly about listing GPT-5 as a co-author because I've written it differently than previous books. I'm a huge believer in the old-fashioned lone author struggling and suffering – that's in my novels, and in Virtuoso I explore that. But other forms are going to emerge, just like video games are a creative, artistic form deeply connected to technology. The novel hasn't been around forever – the current format is only a few centuries old – and forms are always changing. There are real opportunities for authors, and there will be so much crap flooding the market because everybody can write something and put it up on Amazon. But I think there will be a very special place for thoughtful human authors who have an idea of what humans do at our best, and who translate that into content other humans can enjoy. Traditional vs Indie: Why This Book Will Be Self-Published Jo: I'm interested – you mentioned that it's your named co-author. Is this book going through a traditional publisher, and what do they think about that? Or are you going to publish it yourself? Jamie: It's such a smart question. What I found quickly is that when you get to be an author later in your career, you have all the infrastructure – a track record, a fantastic agent, all of that. But there were two things that were really important to me here: I wanted to get this book out really fast – six months instead of a year and a half. It was essential to me to have GPT-5 listed as my co-author, because if it were just my name, I feel like it would be dishonest. Readers who are used to reading my books – I didn't want to present something different than what it was. I spoke with my agent, who I absolutely love, and she said that for this particular project it was going to be really hard in traditional publishing. So I did a huge amount of research, because I'd never done anything in the self-publishing world before. I looked at different models. There was one hybrid model that's basically the same as traditional, but you pay for the things the publisher would normally pay for. I ended up not doing that. Instead, I decided on a self-publishing route where I disaggregated the publishing process. I found three teams: one for producing the book, one for getting the book out into the world, and a smaller one for the audiobook. I still believe in traditional publishing – there's a lot of wonderful human value-add. But some works just don't lend themselves to traditional publishing. For this book, which is called The AI Ten Commandments, that's the path I've chosen. Jo: And when's that out? I think people will be interested. Jamie: April 26th. Those of us used to traditional publishing think, “I've finished the book, sold the proposal, it'll be out any day now,” and then it can be a year and a half. It's frustrating. With this, the process can be much faster because it's possible to control more of the variables. But the key – as I was saying – is to make sure it's as good a book as everything else you've written. It's great to speed up, but you don't want to compromise on quality. The Coming Flood of Excellent AI-Generated Work Jo: Yeah, absolutely. We're almost out of time, but I want to come back to your “flood of crap” and the “AI slop” idea that's going around. Because you are working with GPT-5 – and I do as well, and I work with Claude and Gemini – and right now there are still issues. Like you said about referencing, there are still hallucinations, though fewer. But fast-forward two, five years: it's not a flood of crap. It's a flood of excellent. It's a flood of stuff that's better than us. Jamie: We're humans. It's better than us in certain ways. If you have farm machinery, it's better than us at certain aspects of farming. I'm a true humanist. I think there will be lots of things machines do better than us, but there will be tons of things we do better than them. There's a reason humans still care about chess, even though machines can beat humans at chess. Some people are saying things I fully disagree with, like this concept of AGI – artificial general intelligence – where machines do everything better than humans. I've summarised my position in seven letters: “AGI is BS.” The only way you can believe in AGI in that sense is if your concept of what a human is and what a human mind is is so narrow that you think it's just a narrow range of analytical skills. We are so much more than that. Humans represent almost four billion years of embodied evolution. There's so much about ourselves that we don't know. As incredible as these machines are and will become, there will always be wonderful things humans can do that are different from machines. What I always tell people is: whatever you're doing, don't be a second-rate machine. Be a first-rate human. If you're doing something and a machine is doing that thing much better than you, then shift to something where your unique capacities as a human give you the opportunity to do something better. So yes, I totally agree that the quality of AI-generated stuff will get better. But I think the most creative and successful humans will be the ones who say, “I recognise that this is creating new opportunities, and I'm going to insert my core humanity to do something magical and new.” People are “othering” these technologies, but the technologies themselves are magnificent human-generated artefacts. They're not alien UFOs that landed here. It's a scary moment for creatives, no doubt, because there are things all of us did in the past that machines can now do really well. But this is the moment where the most creative people ask themselves, “What does it mean for me to be a great human?” The pat answers won't apply. In my Virtuoso novel I explore that a lot. The idea that “machines don't do creativity” – they will do incredible creativity; it just won't be exactly human creativity. We will be potentially huge beneficiaries of these capabilities, but we really have to believe in and invest in the magic of our core humanity. Where to Find Jamie and His Books Jo: Brilliant. So where can people find you and your books online? Jamie: Thank you so much for asking. My website is jamiemetzl.com – and my books are available everywhere. Jo: Fantastic. Thanks so much for your time, Jamie. That was great. Jamie: Thank you, Joanna.The post Writing The Future, And Being More Human In An Age of AI With Jamie Metzl first appeared on The Creative Penn.

Pesquisa de doutorado desenvolvida na Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo (FAU) da USP recupera aspectos da memória da política urbana e habitacional no contexto das prefeituras democráticas e populares

Entre os anos de 1986 e 2000, muitas prefeituras do País colocaram a população no seio das tomadas de decisão. "Foram experiências inovadoras e criativas de democracia direta nas cidades brasileiras", disse o pesquisador Pedro Rossi. Ele é autor do estudo de doutorado intitulado O Ciclo virtuoso das prefeituras democráticas e populares no Brasil, defendido na Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo (FAU) da USP. Na entrevista deste episodio de Os Novos Cientistas, Pedro Rossi destacou que o período foi marcado por um ciclo virtuoso de experiências inovadoras, criativas de democracia direta nas cidades brasileiras. De acordo com o pesquisador, naquele período delimitado no estudo (1986 a 2000) houve um período de inversão de prioridades. "Tivemos um novo modo de governar, que até então estava sendo oprimido e reprimido em função da da ditadura militar", contou Pedro Rossi. "E isso ocorreu em dezenas de cidades, de norte a sul e de lestae a oeste no País. Sob a orientação da professora Erminia Terezinha Menon Maricato,o pesquisador ananlisou diversas administrações, mas se aprofundou em cinco casos: São Paulo, Belo Horizonte, é, São Paulo, Belo Horizonte Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre, Belém. Munido de diversos materiais relativos à época das prefeituras, como panfletos, relatórios de gestão, documentos, leis e ações de movimentos populares, o pesquisador gerou um grande arcabouço de material que foi sua fonte primária. "Foram muitas as experiências, e as práticas com resultados muito positivos, desde programas de urbanização de favelas, a provisão habitacional com mutirões cogeridos com a prefeitura, muita assessoria técnica de engenheiros, arquitetos, e assessoria jurídica para a população que precisava ter acesso, não só a moradia, mas a cidade como um todo", ressaltou. Pedro Rossi informou que há um site com metodologias e resultados do estudo podem ser acessados neste endereço. Disponível também na plataforma Spotify

Classical trumpeter Mary Elizabeth Bowden joins Rick and Ron again for another episode of the Feeding the Starving Artist podcast. Mary Elizabeth is a highly in-demand soloist, praised for her “splendid, brilliant” playing (Gramophone Magazine) and her “pure, refined, and warm” tone (American Record Guide). A Gold Medal Global Music Award Winner, Opus Klassik Nominee, and Yamaha Performing Artist, Bowden works diligently to establish a new repertoire for the trumpet through creative, collaborative commissioning projects and award-winning albums.Highlights of Bowden's recent seasons include her debut with the Santa Fe Symphony, as well as prominent engagements with major international ensembles. During the 2022/2023 season, she performed as a soloist with the Busan Maru International Music Festival Orchestra in Korea and toured five cities in Argentina, performing Assad's Bohemian Queen with the Shenandoah Conservatory Orchestra. She served as faculty at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival in summer 2022. Other recent performances include four world premiere concertos. Highlights include her debut with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, where she performs a program including Clarice Assad's Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra and Shostakovich's Concerto in C minor for Piano, Trumpet, and String Orchestra with pianist Henry Kramer. In another key debut, Bowden appears as a soloist with the Austin Symphony Orchestra, performing Reena Esmail's Rosa de Sal and Assad's Bohemian Queen. With the DuPage Symphony, she premieres a new arrangement of Gala Flagello's Persist, newly arranged for two trumpets, and performs as soloist on Grace Williams' Trumpet Concerto. She debuts with Oregon's Rogue Valley Symphony in Henri Tomasi's Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra before touring the Fung and Assad concertos to the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra, Akron Symphony Orchestra, Lexington Philharmonic, and Wichita Falls Symphony Orchestra.Bowden holds residencies and masterclasses at Oberlin College, Swarthmore College, the University of Michigan, Rogue Valley Symphony Orchestra, Central Michigan University, Michigan State University, Western Michigan University, Haverford College, Grand Valley State University and the Fine Arts Center of Greenville, SC. International engagements bring Bowden to the Isla Verde Bronces International Brass Festival in Argentina, Festival de Metales del Pacifico in Mexico, and Lieksa Brass Week in Finland. Bowden's Chrysalis Chamber Players embark on a U.S. tour of trumpet and string quartet repertoire, presented by Live On Stage, and with Seraph Brass, Bowden is recording an album of new compositions for brass quintet for Tower Grove Records.

La deseada corrección, a la que aludíamos al terminar nuestro anterior comentario, ha llegado por fin y, como era de esperar, se ha centrado, sobre todo, en los valores vinculados a la inteligencia artificial, que son los que más habían subido y, por tanto, los que acusan en mayor medida esa “fatiga alcista” a la que también aludíamos la semana pasada. Artículo completo de Juan Carlos Ureta, presidente de Renta 4 Banco, en r4.com ➡️ https://www.r4.com/articulos-y-analisis/opinion-de-expertos/fin-de-ano-entre-el-circulo-virtuoso-y-la-supuesta-burbuja-de-la-ia

Visitors to a Vi Wickam-crafted website may not immediately see what sets it apart from an ordinary e-commerce or informational site. But they feel it. They stay longer, engage more deeply, and are far more likely to become — and remain — loyal customers. A master of the digital domain, Vi is among the elite global Wizard of Ads Partners, celebrated for more than two decades of helping business owners achieve remarkable revenue growth. Whether optimizing keywords, managing pay-per-click campaigns, or reimagining a company's web presence, Vi takes a holistic approach that goes far beyond surface-level functionality. His designs and strategies are built on two essential pillars: authenticity and alignment. Authenticity, Vi says, is today's most powerful digital differentiator. Alignment ensures that wherever customers encounter your brand — in-store, through advertising, or online — they instantly recognize its voice and spirit. Every touchpoint reflects the same DNA. Vi's strategic playbook can be distilled into these central priorities: Build trust through authenticity. Infuse all of your digital marketing — and especially your website — with your unique culture and values. Be real. Be kind. And overdeliver.  Monday Morning Radio is hosted by the father-son duo of Dean and Maxwell Rotbart. Photo: Vi Wickam, Wizard of Ads OnlinePosted: November 10, 2025 Monday Morning Run Time: 57:10 Episode: 14.23 RELATED EPISODES: Vi Wickam is a Virtuoso at Optimizing Websites to Deliver More Leads, Sales, and Happy Customers Mick Torbay Will Change the Way You Think About Marketing Forever Johnny Molson, a Marketing Maestro, on the Two Words That Transform Branding

The new year is coming at us fast: 2026, here we come! At this time of year the reports and articles about travel trends are rife, and I like to look through them all and see what might be happening in tourism and whether or not I like it (by which I mean, of course, does it fit with a thoughtful travel ethos?). In this episode, I take you through some of the key trends identified by numerous players in the travel industry and also figure out which destinations are being predicted most often as being 2026 hotspots. I also chat with some experts, starting with Brett Mitchell, Managing Director of Intrepid Travel for Australia and New Zealand, who describes key trends Intrepid has identified and discusses their annual "Not Hot" list. I then chat with Melanie Fish, Vice President of Global PR for the Expedia Group, who explains how their "Unpack 26" study has included a new feature this year which I particularly like. Links: Intrepid Travel's Not Hot List 2026 - https://www.intrepidtravel.com/au/newsroom/releases/2026-not-hot-list Unpack 26 from Expedia - https://www.expedia.co.uk/unpack26/ Hilton 2026 trends report - https://stories.hilton.com/2026-trends Booking.com 2026 trends report https://news.booking.com/the-era-of-you-bookingcom-predicts-the-top-trends-defining-travel-in-2026-with-individuality-taking-center-stage/ Skyscanner 2026 travel trends - https://www.skyscanner.com.au/travel-trends Priceline 2026 travel trends - https://www.priceline.com/partner/pcln-promotions-2026-travel-trends-report-pr Explore Worldwide 2026 travel trends - https://www.exploreworldwide.com.au/travel-trends-2026 Trafalgar 2026 travel trends - https://www.trafalgar.com/real-word/2026-travel-trends/ Lonely Planet Best in Travel 2026 - https://www.lonelyplanet.com/best-in-travel Contiki top 2026 travel destinations - https://www.contiki.com/six-two/article/top-travel-destinations-in-2026/ Virtuoso best destinations 2026 - https://www.virtuoso.com/travel/articles/the-best-travel-destinations-2026 Forbes 26 best trips for 2026 - https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurabegleybloom/2025/08/21/the-26-best-trips-for-2026-according-to-travel-experts/ Join our Facebook group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://www.facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers Join our LinkedIn group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://notaballerina.com/linkedin Sign up for the Thoughtful Travellers newsletter at Substack - https://thoughtfultravel.substack.com Show notes: https://notaballerina.com/371 Support the show: https://thoughtfultravel.substack.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This Saturday, November 8, Silkroad Ensemble will present a reimagined version of its American Railroad program at The Mahaiwe in Great Barrington, Massachusetts at 7 p.m.The concert will feature an intimate, powerhouse ensemble of eight world-class musicians lead by Silkroad founding musician and international pipa virtuoso Wu Man.

Virtuoso guitarist Nuno Bettencourt of Extreme stepped out on his own for the 1997 solo debut Schizophonic to explore a more diverse sonic landscape. Blending alt-rock, power pop, and electronic influences, the album showcases Bettencourt's strong sense of melody and knack for songwriting. Tracks like “Gravity” and “Swollen Princess” highlight his ability to fuse inventive guitar riffs with catchy hooks, with production that leans toward the dense, experimental textures of late-'90s rock. Having flown under the radar, Schizophonic stands as an underrated and inventive record that captures an artist unafraid to reinvent himself, a fascinating glimpse of what happens when a guitar hero eschews showmanship for songwriting.   Songs In This Episode Intro - Gravity 14:23 - What You Want 19:28 - Karmalaa 25:43 - Swollen Princess 36:31 - Fine By Me 47:28 - Fallen Angels Outro - Severed   Support the podcast, join the DMO UNION at Patreon. Listen to the episode archive at DigMeOutPodcast.com.

Virtuoso guitarist Nuno Bettencourt of Extreme stepped out on his own for the 1997 solo debut Schizophonic to explore a more diverse sonic landscape. Blending alt-rock, power pop, and electronic influences, the album showcases Bettencourt's strong sense of melody and knack for songwriting. Tracks like “Gravity” and “Swollen Princess” highlight his ability to fuse inventive guitar riffs with catchy hooks, with production that leans toward the dense, experimental textures of late-'90s rock. Having flown under the radar, Schizophonic stands as an underrated and inventive record that captures an artist unafraid to reinvent himself, a fascinating glimpse of what happens when a guitar hero eschews showmanship for songwriting.   Songs In This Episode Intro - Gravity 14:23 - What You Want 19:28 - Karmalaa 25:43 - Swollen Princess 36:31 - Fine By Me 47:28 - Fallen Angels Outro - Severed   Support the podcast, join the DMO UNION at Patreon. Listen to the episode archive at DigMeOutPodcast.com.

This week on Trade Secrets After Dark, co-hosts Emma Weissmann and Jamie Biesiada dig into all things luxury travel with David Kolner, Virtuoso’s executive vice president of strategic communications. From wellness and ultraluxe travel to reality television-inspired trips, they cover a lot of ground — including where to find the best chocolate martinis, tiki drinks and ciders. While the Trade Secrets Tech Summit is still ongoing, enjoy the occasional “After Dark” episode, featuring casual chats — and drinks — with guests from around the travel industry. This episode was sponsored by Windstar Cruises. Further resources Virtuoso on the web David Kolner on Instagram David’s previous appearance on Trade Secrets Turning bad TikToks into songs Get in touch! Email us: tradesecrets@travelweekly.com Theme song: "Sweeter Vermouth" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

El pasado jueves, Jensen Huang, fundador y CEO de Nvidia, decía en el foro de directores ejecutivos celebrado en Corea con motivo de la cumbre de la APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation), que la inteligencia artificial (IA) ha alcanzado un círculo virtuoso, al conseguir que, gracias a las enormes inversiones realizadas, cada vez más gente utilice la inteligencia artificial, propiciando así nuevas y mayores inversiones que a su vez redundan en un mayor uso de la IA. La ampliación del mercado posibilita nuevas inversiones, que a su vez impulsan aún más las ventas y así sucesivamente. Artículo completo de Juan Carlos Ureta, presidente de Renta 4 Banco, en r4.com ➡️ https://www.r4.com/articulos-y-analisis/opinion-de-expertos/el-circulo-virtuoso-de-las-tecnologicas-sostiene-a-las-bolsas-pero-la-liquidez-ayuda

From April 2024: Sebo joins us from Milan Italy to discuss the international music scene, his clinics, his famous guitar friends and his endorsement with Ibanez Guitars!

Classical trumpeter Mary Elizabeth Bowden joins Rick and Ron in another episode of the Feeding the Starving Artist podcat. Mary Elizabeth is a highly in-demand soloist, praised for her “splendid, brilliant” playing (Gramophone Magazine) and her “pure, refined, and warm” tone (American Record Guide). A Gold Medal Global Music Award Winner, Opus Klassik Nominee, and Yamaha Performing Artist, Bowden works diligently to establish a new repertoire for the trumpet through creative, collaborative commissioning projects and award-winning albums.Highlights of Bowden's recent seasons include her debut with the Santa Fe Symphony, as well as prominent engagements with major international ensembles. During the 2022/2023 season, she performed as a soloist with the Busan Maru International Music Festival Orchestra in Korea and toured five cities in Argentina, performing Assad's Bohemian Queen with the Shenandoah Conservatory Orchestra. She served as faculty at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival in summer 2022. Other recent performances include four world premiere concertos. Highlights include her debut with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, where she performs a program including Clarice Assad's Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra and Shostakovich's Concerto in C minor for Piano, Trumpet, and String Orchestra with pianist Henry Kramer. In another key debut, Bowden appears as a soloist with the Austin Symphony Orchestra, performing Reena Esmail's Rosa de Sal and Assad's Bohemian Queen. With the DuPage Symphony, she premieres a new arrangement of Gala Flagello's Persist, newly arranged for two trumpets, and performs as soloist on Grace Williams' Trumpet Concerto. She debuts with Oregon's Rogue Valley Symphony in Henri Tomasi's Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra before touring the Fung and Assad concertos to the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra, Akron Symphony Orchestra, Lexington Philharmonic, and Wichita Falls Symphony Orchestra.Bowden holds residencies and masterclasses at Oberlin College, Swarthmore College, the University of Michigan, Rogue Valley Symphony Orchestra, Central Michigan University, Michigan State University, Western Michigan University, Haverford College, Grand Valley State University and the Fine Arts Center of Greenville, SC. International engagements bring Bowden to the Isla Verde Bronces International Brass Festival in Argentina, Festival de Metales del Pacifico in Mexico, and Lieksa Brass Week in Finland. Bowden's Chrysalis Chamber Players embark on a U.S. tour of trumpet and string quartet repertoire, presented by Live On Stage, and with Seraph Brass, Bowden is recording an album of new compositions for brass quintet for Tower Grove Records.

You don't become one of the most successful pianists of our time without a lot of practice. That's something Lang Lang knows all about. Six years after the release of his celebrated “Piano Book” record, the virtuoso Chinese pianist is back with a new album, “Piano Book 2.” It's designed to inspire people of all ages, levels and backgrounds. Lang Lang sits down with Tom Power at the Glenn Gould piano in our studio to discuss the album and his life in music. He tells us about the teacher who didn't believe in him, how he got past that early rejection, and how he found the right people to support him.Fill out our listener survey here. We appreciate your input!

Send us a textAnother of our book reviews, this one is on a biography of Sonny Clark.This is our website This is our InstagramThis is our Facebook group

In this episode, the husband-and-wife team, gypsy jazz and classical guitarist Antoine Boyer and chromatic harmonica player Yeore Kim shared about their real life “Love in Taipei” story. He's from France and she's from South Korea, so music was their first common language. We also talked about how they navigate their partnership as life partners and as musical partners, and their debut duet album You and I.   If you'd like to know more about Antoine you can check out Kaju's in-depth interview with Antoine on YouTube   Related Links:

Claudio Meli, Virtuoso's Hotelier of the Year and General Manager of THE PLACE Firenze, shares how he redefines luxury by connecting guests to the city's artisans and cultural heritage. In this conversation, he explains the creation of The Place of Wonders, a foundation that supports Florence's craftspeople while offering travelers rare access to workshops normally closed to the public. Meli also discusses the broader impact on community, sustainability, and overtourism, showing how longer, more engaged stays benefit both guests and locals. Hospitality leaders will find lessons here in creating unique, purpose-driven experiences that cannot be replicated anywhere else.You may also enjoy:DJ to "Hotelier of the Year": Meet Claudio MeliNo Check-Ins: Redefining Luxury with "Sartorial Hospitality" - Claudio Meli, THE PLACE Firenze A few more resources: If you're new to Hospitality Daily, start here. You can send me a message here with questions, comments, or guest suggestions If you want to get my summary and actionable insights from each episode delivered to your inbox each day, subscribe here for free. Follow Hospitality Daily and join the conversation on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram. If you want to advertise on Hospitality Daily, here are the ways we can work together. If you found this episode interesting or helpful, send it to someone on your team so you can turn the ideas into action and benefit your business and the people you serve! Music for this show is produced by Clay Bassford of Bespoke Sound: Music Identity Design for Hospitality Brands

Life Changes Show with Filippo Voltaggio and cohost Mark Laisure, with Executive Producer Dorothy Lee Donahue You Shall Love Your Neighbor As Yourself – Ep861 Featuring Interview Guest, Mental Health Therapist, Substance Use Disorder Clinical Supervisor, and Executive Director of Baptist Service Corporation, Dr. Mary Ann Ross; and Performance Guest, Virtuoso, Songwriter, Singer, Producer, and One of the Leading Ukulele Players in the World, Taimane, on The Life Changes Show, Episode 861 Interview Guest: DR. MARY ANN ROSS; and Performance Guest: TAIMANE

In this episode, Virtuoso's Hotelier of the Year for 2025, Claudio Meli, General Manager of The Place Firenze, shares why true luxury begins at arrival, how "sartorial hospitality" creates unforgettable experiences, and what hospitality leaders everywhere can learn from rethinking the guest journey from the ground up. A few more resources: If you're new to Hospitality Daily, start here. You can send me a message here with questions, comments, or guest suggestions If you want to get my summary and actionable insights from each episode delivered to your inbox each day, subscribe here for free. Follow Hospitality Daily and join the conversation on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram. If you want to advertise on Hospitality Daily, here are the ways we can work together. If you found this episode interesting or helpful, send it to someone on your team so you can turn the ideas into action and benefit your business and the people you serve! Music for this show is produced by Clay Bassford of Bespoke Sound: Music Identity Design for Hospitality Brands

In this episode, we get to know Virtuoso's "Hotelier of the Year" for 2025, Claudio Meli, General Manager of THE PLACE Firenze. A few more resources: If you're new to Hospitality Daily, start here. You can send me a message here with questions, comments, or guest suggestions If you want to get my summary and actionable insights from each episode delivered to your inbox each day, subscribe here for free. Follow Hospitality Daily and join the conversation on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram. If you want to advertise on Hospitality Daily, here are the ways we can work together. If you found this episode interesting or helpful, send it to someone on your team so you can turn the ideas into action and benefit your business and the people you serve! Music for this show is produced by Clay Bassford of Bespoke Sound: Music Identity Design for Hospitality Brands

Yousif Abbas is an internationally acclaimed Iraqi virtuoso Oud player, composer and cinematic music specialist. He's known for blending traditional Arabic music with modern cinematic language. He's the youngest oud instructor in the Arab world. His music has been featured in major Arabic dramas and he's won the Iraqi Prime Minister's Award for Artistic Innovation. And he's the lead composer for the TV series “Debriefing the President”, in which he also acts.My featured song is “Out Of Tahini”, from the album Play by my band Project Grand Slam. Spotify link.------------------------------------------The Follow Your Dream Podcast:Top 1% of all podcasts with Listeners in 200 countries!Click here for All Episodes Click here for Guest List Click here for Guest Groupings Click here for Guest TestimonialsClick here to Subscribe Click here to receive our Email UpdatesClick here to Rate and Review the podcast—----------------------------------------CONNECT WITH YOUSIF:www.yousifabbas.com—----------------------------------------ROBERT'S NEWEST SINGLE:“SUNDAY SLIDE” is Robert's newest single. It's been called “A fun, upbeat, you-gotta-move song”. Featuring 3 World Class guest artists: Laurence Juber on guitar (Wings with Paul McCartney), Paul Hanson on bassoon (Bela Fleck), and Eamon McLoughlin on violin (Grand Ole Opry band).CLICK HERE FOR ALL LINKSCLICK HERE FOR THE OFFICIAL VIDEO—-------------------------------------------ROBERT'S NEWEST ALBUM:“WHAT'S UP!” is Robert's new compilation album. Featuring 10 of his recent singles including all the ones listed below. Instrumentals and vocals. Jazz, Rock, Pop and Fusion. “My best work so far. (Robert)”CLICK HERE FOR THE OFFICIAL VIDEOCLICK HERE FOR ALL LINKS—----------------------------------------Audio production:Jimmy RavenscroftKymera Films Connect with the Follow Your Dream Podcast:Website - www.followyourdreampodcast.comEmail Robert - robert@followyourdreampodcast.com Follow Robert's band, Project Grand Slam, and his music:Website - www.projectgrandslam.comYouTubeSpotify MusicApple MusicEmail - pgs@projectgrandslam.com 

“Luxury” has officially become the most overused word in travel, and in this Hot Take, Robin and Jennifer are calling it out. They break down the Virtuoso 2025 Luxe Report, which reveals that travelers are taking fewer trips but spending more on immersive, meaningful experiences. They get candid about the pressure on advisors to chase ultra-high-ticket trips and why real success is not defined by a $100K price tag. They share strategies for carving out your own niche, whether that means high volume all-inclusives that keep clients coming back or bespoke itineraries that wow even the pickiest traveler. Plus, they give tips for networking with high-net-worth clients, positioning yourself as the go-to expert, and staying ready for the curveballs that come with serving luxury travelers. If you are tired of the “luxury” buzzword or struggling to stand out in a sea of sameness, this episode is your must listen! JOIN THE NICHE COMMUNITY - an interactive membership for travel advisors wanting the community, education, & support to grow their business! Listen to Episode 02: How We Graduated Our Clients & Increased Our Average Ticket Sales VISIT THE TEMPLATE SHOP EXPLORE THE PROGRAMS FOLLOW ALONG ON INSTAGRAM @TiqueHQ

Peter Moore is a virtuoso Irish-British trombonist. He was Born in Belfast and brought up in Manchester, England, and he was part of the world renowned Brass Band culture in the North of England.  He came to international attention in 2008 when, at aged 12, he became the youngest ever winner of BBC Young Musician of the Year. He's performed with a number of Europe's leading orchestras, including the BBC and the London and Lucerne Symphony orchestras. His repertoire extends from early Baroque to Romantic to contemporary works.  My featured song is “Lament” from the album Trippin by my band, Project Grand Slam. Spotify link.------------------------------------------The Follow Your Dream Podcast:Top 1% of all podcasts with Listeners in 200 countries!Click here for All Episodes Click here for Guest List Click here for Guest Groupings Click here for Guest TestimonialsClick here to Subscribe Click here to receive our Email UpdatesClick here to Rate and Review the podcast—----------------------------------------CONNECT WITH PETER:www.petermooretrombone.com—----------------------------------------ROBERT'S NEWEST SINGLE:“SUNDAY SLIDE” is Robert's newest single. It's been called “A fun, upbeat, you-gotta-move song”. Featuring 3 World Class guest artists: Laurence Juber on guitar (Wings with Paul McCartney), Paul Hanson on bassoon (Bela Fleck), and Eamon McLoughlin on violin (Grand Ole Opry band).CLICK HERE FOR ALL LINKSCLICK HERE FOR THE OFFICIAL VIDEO—-------------------------------------------ROBERT'S NEWEST ALBUM:“WHAT'S UP!” is Robert's new compilation album. Featuring 10 of his recent singles including all the ones listed below. Instrumentals and vocals. Jazz, Rock, Pop and Fusion. “My best work so far. (Robert)”CLICK HERE FOR THE OFFICIAL VIDEOCLICK HERE FOR ALL LINKS—----------------------------------------Audio production:Jimmy RavenscroftKymera Films Connect with the Follow Your Dream Podcast:Website - www.followyourdreampodcast.comEmail Robert - robert@followyourdreampodcast.com Follow Robert's band, Project Grand Slam, and his music:Website - www.projectgrandslam.comYouTubeSpotify MusicApple MusicEmail - pgs@projectgrandslam.com 

We're back for Season 10!! On this episode, Maggie and Brynna tackle a guy who might have gotten a lot wrong, but he was still way more right than anyone else was at the time.Find us on Patreon: patreon.com/bainscienceFeatured BA: Galen

Virtuoso pianist Vicky Chow in musical excerpts and commentary from the artist. Originally from Vancouver, Canada, now in Brooklyn, Chow has put a personal touch on multitudes of contemporary music, engaged commissions, and explored experimental forms expanding the piano repertoire. We hear bits from performances of works by Philip Glass, David Lang, Cassie Wieland, Jane Antonia Cornish, and Tristan Perich whose piece Surface Image the pianist will perform in a free concert in Bryant Park in Manhattan on Sept. 11, 2025 to open Roulette's 47th season.https://roulette.org/

A standout 16-year-old accordionist from Eugene, Oregon brings style and sensitivity. We meet a 17-year-old guitarist and math whiz. A teen cellist performs Villa-Lobos' Song of the Black Swan.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Travel Weekly’s annual Power List is a massive undertaking to identify and rank the biggest sellers of travel. And when we say big, we mean big: The minimum for inclusion this year was agencies that sold at least $125 million in travel in 2024. But among the 70 travel agencies that made the cut, which ones grew the most? In this episode we look at Departure Lounge, which moved almost 10 places in the rankings, after joining just last year. Host Rebecca Tobin and retail editor Jamie Biesiada talk with owner Keith Waldon about Departure Lounge’s founding as a travel agency/wine bar/coffee shop and how his experiences at Virtuoso shaped Departure Lounge. We also talk about how to find independent contractors and treat them right; why some advisors are making so much money; and the 2024 landscape and the 2025 prognosis. Episode sponsor This episode is sponsored by Travel Insured International https://www.travelinsured.com Summer series This episode is part of our annual Summer Series, where we feature some of our favorite recent Folo by Travel Weekly discussions. This episode was recorded July 7 and has been edited for length and clarity. Related links Departure Lounge https://www.departurelounge.com The 2025 Power List https://www.travelweekly.com/power-list-2025 A 2017 column from Richard Turen that features Departure Lounge: "Rethinking the travel agency experience" https://www.travelweekly.com/Richard-Turen/Rethinking-travel-agency-experienceSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Virtuoso pianist Vicky Chow in musical excerpts and commentary from the artist. Originally from Vancouver, Canada, now in Brooklyn, Chow has put a personal touch on multitudes of contemporary music, engaged commissions, and explored experimental forms expanding the piano repertoire. We hear bits from performances of works by Philip Glass, David Lang, Cassie Wieland, Jane Antonia Cornish, and Tristan Perich whose piece Surface Image the pianist will perform in a free concert in Bryant Park in Manhattan on Sept. 11, 2025 to open Roulette's 47th season. Image: Kaitlin Jane Photography

Helen McCabe-Young, Virtuoso's senior vice president-global products and former senior vice president-global marketing, talks with James Shillinglaw of Insider Travel Report at this month's Virtuoso Travel Week about how the luxury travel network uses a new social media program to help its members market their luxury travel services. McCabe-Young also provides an update on other marketing initiatives such as the So Virtuoso campaign. For more information, visit www.virtuoso.com. All our Insider Travel Report video interviews are archived and available on our Youtube channel (youtube.com/insidertravelreport), and as podcasts with the same title on: Spotify, Pandora, Stitcher, PlayerFM, Listen Notes, Podchaser, TuneIn + Alexa, Podbean,  iHeartRadio,  Google, Amazon Music/Audible, Deezer, Podcast Addict, and iTunes Apple Podcasts, which supports Overcast, Pocket Cast, Castro and Castbox.

David Kolner, executive vice president of Virtuoso, talks with James Shillinglaw of Insider Travel Report at this month's Virtuoso Travel Week about how sales are with the network (up 12 percent overall), where luxury travelers are going these days, what's the mood among Virtuoso's luxury travel advisors and much more. Get a status report on Virtuoso. For more information, visit www.virtuoso.com.  All our Insider Travel Report video interviews are archived and available on our Youtube channel  (youtube.com/insidertravelreport), and as podcasts with the same title on: Spotify, Pandora, Stitcher, PlayerFM, Listen Notes, Podchaser, TuneIn + Alexa, Podbean,  iHeartRadio,  Google, Amazon Music/Audible, Deezer, Podcast Addict, and iTunes Apple Podcasts, which supports Overcast, Pocket Cast, Castro and Castbox.  

Gilad Berenstein, creator of the Virtuoso Tech Summit, talks with James Shillinglaw of Insider Travel Report about what the Summit, held on Aug. 9 during Virtuoso Travel Week in Las Vegas, focused on, including AI and trending technology topics. Berenstein, a tech entrepreneur, investor and Virtuoso board member, has staged three Virtuoso Tech Summits in the last three years and this one was the largest yet. For more information, visit www.virtuoso.com. All our Insider Travel Report video interviews are archived and available on our Youtube channel (youtube.com/insidertravelreport), and as podcasts with the same title on: Spotify, Pandora, Stitcher, PlayerFM, Listen Notes, Podchaser, TuneIn + Alexa, Podbean,  iHeartRadio,  Google, Amazon Music/Audible, Deezer, Podcast Addict, and iTunes Apple Podcasts, which supports Overcast, Pocket Cast, Castro and Castbox.

Jessica Hall Upchurch, vice chairman and sustainability strategist for luxury travel network Virtuoso, talks with James Shillinglaw of Insider Travel Report about the programs she has helped develop to turn sustainable travel into part of the mainstream for the group's luxury travel advisors. Hall Upchurch has launched an annual sustainable travel report to gauge progress and has backed yearly awards to preferred partners and travel advisors recognizing their achievements in sustainability. For more information, visit www.virtuoso.com. All our Insider Travel Report video interviews are archived and available on our Youtube channel  (youtube.com/insidertravelreport), and as podcasts with the same title on: Spotify, Pandora, Stitcher, PlayerFM, Listen Notes, Podchaser, TuneIn + Alexa, Podbean,  iHeartRadio,  Google, Amazon Music/Audible, Deezer, Podcast Addict, and iTunes Apple Podcasts, which supports Overcast, Pocket Cast, Castro and Castbox.  

Singer / songwriter Christena Rich and virtuoso guitarist Laurence Juber

Kylie Elizabeth, M.A.Ed. is an experienced educator, consultant, and community advocate with over a decade of service in K-12 classrooms, school leadership, and state-level administration in Career and Technical Education. She is committed to cultivating sustainable learning environments that foster knowledge and build positive relationships among educators, students, families, and communities.As the Owner and Lead Consultant of Virtuoso Education Consulting Services, PLLC (VECS), Kylie supports educational entities, nonprofit organizations, and small businesses through professional development, curriculum and instructional design, and strategic planning. Through VECS, she also organizes and facilitates a variety of community events and workshops. ______________________________________________________________________ The Edupreneur: Your Blueprint To Jumpstart And Scale Your Education BusinessYou've spent years in the classroom, leading PD, designing curriculum, and transforming how students learn. Now, it's time to leverage that experience and build something for yourself. The Edupreneur isn't just another book; it's the playbook for educators who want to take their knowledge beyond the school walls and into a thriving business.I wrote this book because I've been where you are. I know what it's like to have the skills, the passion, and the drive but not know where to start. I break it all down: the mindset shifts, the business models, the pricing strategies, and the branding moves that will help you position yourself as a leader in this space.Inside, you'll learn how to:✅ Turn your expertise into income streams, without feeling like a sellout✅ Build a personal brand that commands respect (and top dollar)✅ Market your work in a way that feels natural and impactful✅ Navigate the business side of edupreneurship, from pricing to partnershipsWhether you want to consult, create courses, write books, or launch a podcast, this book will help you get there. Stop waiting for permission. Start building your own table.Grab your copy today and take control of your future.Buy it from EduMatch Publishing https://edumatch-publishing.myshopify.com/collections/new-releases/products/the-edupreneur-by-dr-will

Ariadne Trujillo Durand is a powerhouse Cuban-born, Grammy nominated, virtuoso pianist and singer, one of the world's leading Latin Jazz musicians. She began performing at age 14 with Cuba's top symphonic orchestras. She's worked with Paul Simon, Paquito D'Rivera, Wynton Marsalis and Esperanza Spalding. Her vocal technique ranges from opera to jazz. This past March she released her first solo album, “Legacy”, along with a live performance at Lincoln Center with her 10 piece orchestra.My featured song is my reimagined version of “The ‘In' Crowd”, the 1960s hit by Dobie Gray from the album East Side Sessions by my band Project Grand Slam. Spotify link.------------------------------------------The Follow Your Dream Podcast:Top 1% of all podcasts with Listeners in 200 countries!Click here for All Episodes Click here for Guest List Click here for Guest Groupings Click here for Guest TestimonialsClick here to Subscribe Click here to receive our Email UpdatesClick here to Rate and Review the podcast—----------------------------------------CONNECT WITH ARIACNE:www.ariacne.com____________________ROBERT'S NEWEST ALBUM:“WHAT'S UP!” is Robert's new compilation album. Featuring 10 of his recent singles including all the ones listed below. Instrumentals and vocals. Jazz, Rock, Pop and Fusion. “My best work so far. (Robert)”CLICK HERE FOR THE OFFICIAL VIDEOCLICK HERE FOR ALL LINKS—----------------------------------------Audio production:Jimmy RavenscroftKymera Films Connect with the Follow Your Dream Podcast:Website - www.followyourdreampodcast.comEmail Robert - robert@followyourdreampodcast.com Follow Robert's band, Project Grand Slam, and his music:Website - www.projectgrandslam.comYouTubeSpotify MusicApple MusicEmail - pgs@projectgrandslam.com 

Theatre producer Nica Burns, who has run the Edinburgh Comedy Awards since 1984, and judge Ashley Davies discuss the acts shortlisted for this year's prize, the most prestigious annual award for comedy in the UK, which has previously been won by the likes of Steve Coogan, Jenny Eclair, The League of Gentlemen and Tim Minchin. The founder of theatre company Complicité, Simon McBurney, who himself won that award back in 1985, joins us in the studio to talk about Figures In Extinction, a collaboration with Nederlands Dans Theater and acclaimed choreographer Crystal Pite, which addresses urgent questions about climate change. Writer and performer Edgar Jacques of Teater Cego in Brazil and actor and stand-up comedian Jasmine Thien discuss their theatre productions - Another Sight and I Dream In Colour - which draw on their experiences of blindness. And ahead of a performance at the Edinburgh International Festival, indigenous Australian didgeridoo virtuoso William Barton performs live in the Front Row studio. Presenter: Kirsty Wark Producer: Mark Crossan

You are a rock and roll musician who fights creatures in virtual reality! You embody rock'n'roll in every way except the music. What's more, you received a job offer from Uganda!

Giora Schmidt is a virtuoso American-Israeli violinist. He has appeared as a soloist with many prominent symphony orchestras around the globe including the Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland and Philadelphia symphonies and the Toronto, Vancouver and Israel Philharmonics. He has performed at Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. He has collaborated with Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman. And he even performed on an airplane!My featured song is “Fishin'” featuring Mindi Abair on saxophone, from the album The PGS Experience by my band Project Grand Slam. Spotify link.------------------------------------------The Follow Your Dream Podcast:Top 1% of all podcasts with Listeners in 200 countries!Click here for All Episodes Click here for Guest List Click here for Guest Groupings Click here for Guest TestimonialsClick here to Subscribe Click here to receive our Email UpdatesClick here to Rate and Review the podcast—----------------------------------------CONNECT WITH GIORA:www.gioraschmidt.com____________________ROBERT'S NEWEST ALBUM:“WHAT'S UP!” is Robert's new compilation album. Featuring 10 of his recent singles including all the ones listed below. Instrumentals and vocals. Jazz, Rock, Pop and Fusion. “My best work so far. (Robert)”CLICK HERE FOR THE OFFICIAL VIDEOCLICK HERE FOR ALL LINKS—----------------------------------------Audio production:Jimmy RavenscroftKymera Films Connect with the Follow Your Dream Podcast:Website - www.followyourdreampodcast.comEmail Robert - robert@followyourdreampodcast.com Follow Robert's band, Project Grand Slam, and his music:Website - www.projectgrandslam.comYouTubeSpotify MusicApple MusicEmail - pgs@projectgrandslam.com 

Ever wondered what really goes into running a high-performing host agency? Keith Walden, founder of Departure Lounge, shares how he built a values-driven agency that empowers over 320 advisors across 13 countries and why mentorship, collaboration, and kindness are non-negotiables. With nearly four decades of experience, Keith reveals the secrets behind Departure Lounge's explosive growth, what he looks for in advisors and partners, and how he's blending innovation with human connection to build a business on track to exceed $500 million in annual sales. About Keith Waldon: A native Texan, Keith Waldon began his career in luxury travel while still in college in Dallas as an intern for Rosewood Hotels, where he continued his career as a marketing manager after graduating from Southern Methodist University. Keith later spent 16 years as a senior executive for the international luxury travel network Virtuoso, where creating the Virtuoso brand and elevating the awareness of travel advisors were among his accomplishments. With 27 years in the luxury travel industry, Keith launched Departure Lounge in 2013, first as a specialty retail storefront travel agency. Since then, the agency has organically grown into an international luxury host travel agency with more than 320 travel advisors reaching more than $340 million in annual sales in 2024. Keith was voted Most Innovative Travel Advisor by the Virtuoso network in 2019. He is honored to be featured on Travel+Leisure Magazine's A-List of travel experts as a family and Italy travel specialist, and he serves on the magazine's Advisory Board. He also serves on advisory boards for Marriott luxury brands, Hilton luxury brands, IHG luxury brands, Corinthia Hotels, Lindblad Expeditions, Truevail and the British Virgin Islands. Keith now calls northwest Tuscany home, where he is renovating an old estate built between 1550 and 1700. kwaldon@departurelounge.com DepartureLounge.com Download the Launch Checklist: http://www.tiquehq.com/launch?utm_source=Podcast+Episode+40&utm_medium=Podcast+Shownotes&utm_campaign=Launch+Checklist Today we will cover: (02:00) Keith's journey from college internship to luxury travel leader (04:30) The birth of Departure Lounge and the innovative model behind its success (14:20) Keith's approach to mentorship, community building, and advisor empowerment (22:30) How to grow a host agency without losing the human touch (30:15) How transparency and trust drive long-term success (36:20) How Departure Lounge structures earnings and supports advisor success (44:35) Why education and mentorship are the core business strategies (51:45) Keith's board involvement; advocating for advisors on a global level JOIN THE NICHE COMMUNITY VISIT THE TEMPLATE SHOP EXPLORE THE PROGRAMS FOLLOW ALONG ON INSTAGRAM @TiqueHQ Thanks to Our Tique Talks Sponsors: Check out Moxie & Fourth: Email marketing for travel advisors

The luxury travel market isn't slowing down — it's evolving. At Virtuoso Travel Week in Las Vegas, I sat down with Misty Belles, VP of Global Public Relations at Virtuoso, to uncover what's really happening in high-end travel and how hotels can adapt to meet shifting guest expectations.

Gustavo Bondoni is a novelist and short story writer with over five hundred stories published in fifteen countries, in seven languages. He has published several science fiction novels including two trilogies, six monster books, a dark military fantasy and a thriller. His short fiction is collected in Thin Air (2023), Pale Reflection (2020), Off the Beaten Path (2019), Tenth Orbit and Other Faraway Places (2010) and Virtuoso and Other Stories (2011).In 2019, Gustavo was awarded second place in the Jim Baen Memorial Contest and in 2018 he received a Judges Commendation (and second place) in The James White Award. He was also a 2019 finalist in the Writers of the Future Contest.His website is at www.gustavobondoni.comThis story is original to StarShipSofa.Narrated by: Alethea KontisAlethea Kontis is an actress, storm chaser, and New York Times bestselling author. She has received the Scribe Award, the Garden State Teen Book Award, and is a two-time winner of the Gelett Burgess Children's Book Award. She was twice nominated for both the Andre Norton Nebula and Dragon Award. Alethea narrates stories for multiple award-winning online magazines and does freelance work for Writing the Other. Born in Vermont, Alethea currently resides on the Space Coast of Florida where she watches K-dramas with her teddy bear, Charlie. Together they are ARMY, VVS, and Black Roses. Fact: Looking Back At Genre History by Amy H SturgisSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/starshipsofa. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.